In a Dark Place
by Nara Bluestar
Summary: A young draenei hunter is rescued unexpectedly by a member of the Horde. She knows she's falling in love, but will she survive to explore her forbidden feelings? Please heed the M rating and proceed with caution. DraeneiXorc. The first story in a series.
1. A Fortuitous Encounter

**A/N: **Welcome to the first story in a series! I'm currently working (very slowly) on a rewrite of this story, as of August 2009. Chapter 1 has been rewritten and appended here as Chapter 8; everything before that is the full, original, un-rewritten story. So if you're new to the story, you can read chapters 1-7 and hear the tale beginning to end. As I continue with the rewrite, I plan to delve more deeply into some of the details and flesh out more things that didn't make it into the original cut. Regardless, if you're a new reader, I hope you'll stick around to read the rest of the series and maybe drop me a review or two. :) If you're an old reader revisiting to see what's different with this, I salute you. I'll be posting notices in my profile (and possibly in upcoming chapters of Bloodscry or Days) when I update a chapter of this.

Warnings/disclaimers: This story contains rape and strong sexual themes, so proceed with caution or turn back if you're underage. I don't own Blizzard, WoW and its terms, or any NPCs I use here or elsewhere in my stories; I can only claim my own characters and the stories themselves.

* * *

Blood poured into Hyara's eyes as she raised her bow to take what she knew would be her last, unsteady shot at the thing barreling toward her. Her cat Gink, exhausted and wounded himself by now, snarled and gave chase, swiping at it from behind. The arrow flew true and with a dull _thunk_ landed firmly in the creature's chest, but Hyara's mana and most of her lifeblood were spent. The last thing she saw was the world turning blue as blood flooded her vision. _Shit_, she thought. _Now I've done it._ Blackness swallowed her.

* * *

In the eerie greenish gloom that passed for night in Felwood, Galmak could barely discern Palla, his wolf, winding her way ghostlike through the trees ahead and to the right of the path. She'd been on the trail of something for about an hour now, but she appeared unconcerned and the orc concluded that she'd probably scented some other hunter's pet and was merely passing the time as they traveled learning its scent story. For himself, he would be glad to leave Felwood as quickly as possible. The corruption of the place was unnerving, but the corruption of the creatures that dwelled there didn't bear thinking of. For an instant Galmak caught himself imagining how it must have been. Had the animals noticed when they first began to feel it? Or had it happened so gradually... He let out a low growl and mentally shook himself. He had to stay alert here.

Palla had wandered farther from the road, and the orc strained his eyes to catch sight of her misty grey shape in the direction he could sense she had taken. He tugged gently on the reins to bring his riding wolf to a stop and reached out through his bond with Palla to discover what had changed in her sense. She was moving cautiously and slowly now, skirting something.

_Someone here_, came her explanation.

_Well, come back then_, he responded. _If it's an enemy, we want none of it; if it's a friend, we don't have time for socializing._ Galmak felt her mental equivalent of a disdainful sniff at his lack of curiosity, but he knew she understood his desire to leave Felwood as quickly as possible. It surprised him, therefore, when Palla did not reemerge from the forest right away.

_Now what?_ he asked impatiently.

_I think you should come here._

The orc didn't bother trying to hide his annoyance with her, but nevertheless he dismounted and gave his riding wolf the command to stay, then started off the path into the deeper shadows of the undergrowth. He hadn't gone five yards when he began to notice signs of some sort of fairly recent carnage. He raised his eyebrows and would have let out a low whistle if he hadn't been trying to move silently- this must have been a pretty monstrous battle. All around him was broken brush; he spotted clumps of fur in several places and dark smears on branches and on the ground that must have been blood. Underfoot the sickly, tainted grass had been trampled. Galmak followed his sense of Palla and crept up next to her where she was crouched beneath a bush. She turned her wide, glinting eyes to him, then back to where Galmak could see not much more than what looked like a dark bundle crumpled on the ground in a small area clear of brush. He gave a most unprofessional start as something suddenly moved in an area that he could have sworn had held nothing but empty air a moment before, and the thing he saw resolved itself into the head of a cat. As his eyes made sense of this, he was able to pick out the rest of the cat's body, insubstantial as shadows. He could clearly see the brush behind the cat through the cat's body.

_A ghostsaber,_ Palla's thought came to him. Galmak nodded. He'd seen them a few times before, but never with Horde hunters. _His name is Gink_, Palla continued, and this time Galmak turned to look at her.

_And where's the thing that killed his hunter?_ he asked, his eyes scanning the undergrowth uneasily, searching for a trail the monster might have made as it crashed away after visiting death on the crumpled body lying in the clearing.

_The thing is several yards north behind the bushes, dead. Gink's hunter is not dead._

_Dying then, from the look of it. How long ago did this happen? _

_A few hours, _came Palla's answer.

Galmak allowed himself a sigh. Palla knew his weakness; that was why she had called him over here. She knew Galmak didn't like to leave anyone or any creature suffering. She herself didn't like to feel the pain of other hunters or their pets, and her compassion didn't know the bounds of Horde or Alliance.

_And you call that weakness?_ Palla thought wryly at her master.

This time, however, Galmak was half inclined to leave well enough alone. This hunter was surely beyond help if he had been lying here for hours without moving. The orc was no healer and could do little to help if the wounds were serious, as the dark blood pooled on the ground near the head and side seemed to indicate. But still, he couldn't just walk away without even satisfying himself that there was nothing to be done.

_Alright, I'll take a look. Will the cat let me approach?_

_I think so_, Palla answered. Hopefully she had been able to reassure Gink sufficiently that her master meant no harm; otherwise he would probably wind up with four sets of claws buried in his chest.

As Galmak moved cautiously forward through the gloom, the cat raised its head and fixed the orc with a stare that clearly said this trust was temporary and only out of desperation. Galmak made soothing noises as he slowly approached until he could kneel down for a closer look in the murky darkness. He put out his hands to turn the hunter's head for a look at the wound, and with a start he realized he was touching a horn. It was a draenei; what's more, it was a female draenei.

Galmak inwardly cursed his bad luck.

* * *

Crazed roaring, pain, then blackness... Hyara felt the passage of time in trickles, then in floods, then it would slow again. Her mind seemed to wander aimlessly in the blackness and she couldn't remember why she was there. And then abruptly she became aware of a red glow emanating from somewhere in front of her and her consciousness swam suddenly into focus: her eyes were closed and there was light in front of her. She struggled to move but her head felt heavy. Gink was by her side in an instant at the first sign of her stirrings.

_Hyara, don't move_, he said through their bond. _You're hurt badly and you're not out of danger. Stay still._

_Feign death?_ she thought weakly and confusedly.

At this she sensed mild amusement. _No, he knows you're not dead. What I meant was that your injuries are dangerous; don't make it worse by trying to sit._

Hyara was still confused. _Who knows I'm not dead?_

Gink's sense was uneasy. _An orc hunter found us after we killed the beast. He's saved your life by helping with what he can, but I still don't trust him or his motivations. You understand?_

She did understand; the memory of what had happened was reemerging and clarifying. Gingerly she turned her head away from the flickering campfire and opened her eyes slowly, fearing what she would see...

But instead of an entire band of Horde staring at her she saw one lone hunter sitting a few feet away, munching absently on a heel of bread as he stared into the black trees beyond the firelight. His pet wolf lay near his feet, grey head resting on her paws, one eye open. It was an altogether domestic and reassuring scene, and Hyara wondered suspiciously if perhaps he'd arranged it that way so as not to alarm her when she opened her eyes. She wasn't fooled for a second into believing that he didn't know the instant she awoke.

The orc turned his head and caught her studying him. She didn't flinch, but locked eyes with him and decided to give him a surprise.

"Thank you for saving me," she said in accented but perfectly understandable orcish.

She got her desired reaction. His mouth fell open and he stuttered, "What the… How- how do you know orcish?"

Hyara gave a small smile. "It's not terribly uncommon for draenei to know orcish. We lived with your people for many years." The orc turned his eyes toward the fire.

What she hadn't told him was that it was actually fairly uncommon for someone her age to know orcish; she was young for a draenei and had lived most of her life on Azeroth, with only vague childhood memories of Draenor. Most of those memories involved her parents being afraid for reasons she hadn't understood. Azeroth had been Hyara's home for... oh, however many years it had been now since the Exodar crashed. Draenei were not very particular about keeping close track of time, but it had been long enough for Hyara to grow up to be an experienced hunter who was ready to venture into dangerous places such as Felwood. Or so she had thought. With a wrench she thought once more of the monstrous creature that Gink had said they successfully killed. Successfully killed literally only an instant before it would have killed her for good and true.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and ended up gasping and crying out as pain lanced through her side. The orc shot to her side and put a calming hand on her shoulder, but Hyara thought he looked rather helpless, as if he were a little exasperated with the situation.

"You've got a bad gash down your side," he explained. "I put some ointment on it... usually works wonders... but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. I'd guess it's fel-poisoned somehow, which isn't surprising considering the thing you tangled with." Despite her private terror at her narrow escape, Hyara was pleased to hear a touch of awe creep into the orc's voice. "Dunno how you managed to survive that at all," he continued gruffly. "That was the biggest, nastiest, most ferocious furbolg I've ever seen. How in the name of all the elements did you have the bad luck to attract his ire?"

Hyara's glowing eyes slid away from him and she bit her lip. "I bit off a little more than I could chew," she said in a small voice. And it had nearly cost her life, and Gink's.

This appeared to render the orc speechless. That kind of overconfidence was a serious miscalculation, but it was a sure thing this little draenei had learned her lesson. She was lucky she was still around to apply it to future situations.

"I'm Galmak, by the way," he said quietly and extended his hand. She smiled again slightly and took it.

"I'm Hyara." She pronounced the "H" breathily, and Galmak couldn't do it when he tried. "Ha-yara," he said, sure he'd done it right, but his ears told him otherwise and he was miffed with himself. Here she knew his whole language and he couldn't even get one name right in hers.

Hyara tried to chuckle at his obvious consternation, but ended up groaning in pain again. Gink lashed his tail from his position on her other side. _If a fel poison's gotten into you, we need to get you somewhere it can be cured. You're only going to get worse if we don't_, her cat told her bluntly.

_I know. _ A hint of desperation entered her sense at her next thought. _But I'm completely dependent on him for help. Look at me- I can't go anywhere on my own like this. If he decides he's done enough and goes off and leaves... _

That thought didn't have long to trouble Hyara and Gink. "I think your head should do alright with a little time to heal; it wasn't the furbie that cut you there- must've been a branch or something. But I need to get you somewhere they can cure this poison." Galmak looked at her thoughtfully. "Do you think you can sleep tonight, try to gather your strength, and be ready for some traveling by morning?"

Hyara nodded slowly so as not to set her head swimming. She reached out a hand to stop him as he turned away. "Really. Thank you. I would have died. I owe you a tremendous debt, and I won't forget it, Galmak."

To protest that she owed him nothing, that there was no debt and never could be in his mind except a debt he felt he owed but could never repay... it would have insulted her. She wouldn't have understood, and he had no desire to explain, so Galmak merely nodded and turned away back to the other side of the fire. He lay on his thin spare bedroll, his better one having been given to Hyara, and gazed up at the twisted, blackened trees tainted by a force they hadn't recognized when it came to them and couldn't have run from even if they had. He heard Palla slink off into the undergrowth to prowl a stealthy, watchful circle around the camp, but there would be two on watch that night. Galmak knew he wouldn't be able to close his eyes for a moment.

* * *


	2. Savior

* * *

Galmak had finally fallen asleep a few hours before dawn, his mind exhausted from the thoughts that had chased him all night. He awoke alert and ready the next morning, however, sure of what he needed to do. He had to admit he didn't much like the idea though. Hyara needed the fel poison cleansed from her body, and that meant only one thing: they would have to travel back south to the druids of the Emerald Circle. Galmak grimaced as he began erasing the signs of the campfire and repacking his bags. It meant more time in Felwood, and undoing all the progress he had made to get this far north. If last night and today had gone as planned he would have reached the Timbermaw Hold and crossed into Winterspring by nightfall. But the thought that he could still make it if he abandoned Hyara never crossed his mind.

She still slept, huddled on the ground under a thin blanket, and Galmak put a gentle hand on her shoulder to wake her. "Hyara."

She was awake in an instant, as he would have expected of another hunter. Hyara stretched slowly and winced in spite of herself. Her body felt like one giant bruise and her side was throbbing with a dull, ominous pain. Galmak carefully peeled the bandage away from the wound on her head and raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. Aside from her wound healing quite well, he could now see properly in the daylight that her blood was blue.

"Of course," she responded when he commented. "Haven't you ever heard blood elves call draenei 'blue bloods'?"

"I've heard that before, but I assumed they meant it in the way humans sometimes do."

"They mean it quite literally. They have no problem with killing my people," she added with a touch of bitterness.

Galmak stood abruptly and began securing bags to his wolf's saddle. Hyara watched him for a moment as he worked. Like most orc males she had seen, he was massively built with wide shoulders and powerful muscles. He was no taller than she was, probably shorter in fact, yet still he seemed huge to her. His hair was a deep midnight blue and he wore it pulled back into a ponytail. He had the characteristic tusks protruding from his lower jaw, and his skin was a shade of green that reminded Hyara of leaves in summer. And surprisingly, the natural lines of his face showed kindness. Hyara had always thought that orcs valued looking ferocious, but Galmak was... kind of cute, in a strange way, despite his ruggedness. Or maybe because of it. Hyara almost snorted with laughter at that thought and what he would surely have to say about it. She gathered her strength to try to stand. Galmak was an odd orc, and not at all like what she would have expected. But then, maybe he wasn't odd at all. Maybe her expectations had been all wrong.

Hyara whistled for Gink, who came bounding through the trees a moment later. _C'mon, old boy, I need your steady shoulder or I might not get to my hooves._ Gink braced himself next to her and Hyara struggled upright, the throbbing in her side growing more persistent as she stood.

Galmak had avoided watching her struggle; she could ask if she wanted his help, but otherwise he'd leave her the independence most hunters valued so highly. Now that she was standing, however, he studied her furtively out of the corner of his eye. This was his first chance to see her properly, in the daylight and standing up. She wasn't as tall as he had thought; he guessed that if he straightened to his full height from the normal slouched posture of orc males, he might be about as tall as she. Her skin was a pale blue, her hair an odd ash blonde color that seemed to shimmer from light to dark depending on the light. A wide, ornamented band held her hair away from her face, revealing the delicate facial tendrils typical of draenei females, but still allowed her hair to spill lose down her back. Her horns were small and curved, and Galmak found himself remembering how smooth they had felt when he had touched them the night before. Hyara's eyes were wide and glowed a soft blue-white, and she had a small, full-lipped mouth that seemed perpetually ready to break into a mischievous smile. Despite the many differences with his own species, Galmak had to admit that hers was a beautiful face. And then there was that little tail... He shook himself and resumed packing up.

Hyara looked around futilely in the underbrush. _Gink... I don't suppose... my elekk?_ She sighed. Of course not. Hopefully the poor thing would turn up somewhere.

"I seem to have lost my elekk," she said lamely.

The image of a giant elekk suddenly shuffling cautiously out from behind a bush was too much for the orc, and he burst into laughter. "I'm sorry," he said. "But... yeah. I think we'd see it if it were here."

Hyara shook her head a little exasperatedly and limped her way to where Galmak had deposited her pack the night before. It was torn and smeared with her own blood, but at least she still had it. She tried to lift it, but gasped and fell to her knees as her side exploded in pain. Galmak covered the distance between them in two strides and lowered her gently to the ground.

"Foolish woman," he growled. He lifted a piece of shredded armor away from the wound and cursed at what he saw. The gash looked larger than it had the night before, and certainly more malignant. A new stream of blood trickled down Hyara's side and dripped to the ground, and the wound seemed to radiate a faint greenish aura.

"Not good," Hyara said through gritted teeth.

"No. Not good at all. We need to get you on my wolf right away; we have a long way to go to the Emerald Circle and it looks like every second is going to count," he said bluntly.

"Wait..." Hyara closed her eyes and took a careful deep breath. "I think there's a druid at Talonbranch Glade."

This was surprising, and excellent, news.

"You think... how sure are you?"

Talonbranch Glade, the Alliance outpost in northern Felwood, was a mere three or four hours' journey from here, Galmak estimated. Probably four, at the pace they would have to take. The Emerald Circle encampment would take at least a day to reach.

_Gink, am I right? Is there a druid there?_ Hyara asked.

Gink hesitated. He had seen no druid the one time they had been there. On the other hand, Hyara might be remembering something from a conversation she had had with one of the other residents; perhaps the person had mentioned the druid. This was a matter of his mistress's life or death, and Gink was unsure that she would live to reach the Emerald Circle. Gink trusted Hyara's instincts.

_Yes,_ he responded. _There's a druid there._

Hyara nodded. If Gink was sure, it had to be so. "I'm sure," she told Galmak.

The orc sighed with relief, and he pushed back the despair he'd felt creeping in. Quickly he led his riding wolf over to Hyara. She twined her fingers in the wolf's fur, then turned a questioning glance toward Galmak.

"Will I hurt him if I pull myself up?"

Galmak shook his head. Hyara, however, was too weak to do most of the work and Galmak had to help boost her up and swing one leg over the wolf.

"I never realized how heavy hooves are," the orc grunted. Hyara gave a strained laugh.

Galmak climbed up behind her quickly, afraid she'd fall off if he left her unsupported for more than a few seconds, and they were on their way north with Palla and Gink trotting to either side. The orc found now that they were seated together that most of her height was in her legs and she sat slightly lower than him.

_How are you feeling?_ Gink asked his mistress after they'd been traveling a few minutes.

_Well... like crap_, Hyara answered wryly.

_It's not far_, Gink said bracingly. _Just a few hours until we turn the corner east, then a few more over to the Glade._

The pain in her side beat like a drum with every step the wolf took, and her side and right leg were soon slick with trickling blood. Hyara found it harder and harder to stay upright on her own and she finally gave in and leaned back against Galmak for support. The orc fumbled behind him for something in a bag and handed her a fresh bandage.

"Press it against the wound if you can. You're losing too much blood." His voice sounded strained. She was not only losing it, she was leaving behind a trail of it on the road. Would she have any left after three more hours of this?

Hyara moaned softly from the pain, but tried to keep the bandage pressed to her side. Suddenly she realized she'd slipped to the side and Galmak's arms were the only thing keeping her on the wolf. How much time had passed? It felt like this pain had lasted an eternity, the wolf plodding on slowly but making no progress, the gnarled, tortured trees closing in around her with whispering voices that spoke of death.

"Hyara!" She started. Galmak was gripping her arms tightly. "You were muttering something... You need to stay alert. Why don't you tell me about yourself? Do you have family?"

Hyara's head was spinning and she saw strange shapes whirling and rising before her, only to be swept away by a wind she couldn't feel. "I... I can't remember... Galmak, I can't think about anything..." she whispered. She had never been more terrified in her life. No beast she had faced, no dungeon crawling with evil, not even her recent near-fatal encounter with the furbolg had felt anything like this. It was as if her own senses were abandoning her, or were being driven out by something with a cold and sentient malevolence. The thought flitted through her mind that soon there would be nothing left of her but the husk of her body for this thing to command. The shapes forming in Hyara's vision swirled darker, closer, cramping her, and she shrunk away, clinging to the only thing that felt solid: the man behind her, supporting her. His warmth and solidity steadied her. She felt a hand closing around her own and it was that abrupt collision with reality that jerked her back to consciousness. "Galmak!" she cried. "I won't go."

He knew what she meant. He began to sing as they traveled and Hyara grasped at his songs like a tenuous last hope. She concentrated fiercely on the words, repeating them in her head, scoring the meaning deep and joining in in a whisper when she knew the words. The writhing thing in the shadows of her mind brooded, kept at bay for now.

It was clear to Galmak that Hyara was dying. If the druid at Talonbranch Glade could do nothing for her, she would be gone in a matter of hours. The orc found he was filled with sorrow at that thought. And not only because she was one more draenei that had to die, that he could do nothing to help. But at least he wouldn't be the cause of her death.

_You weren't the cause of any of those deaths,_ Palla whispered gently.

_What can I do, Palla? I don't want her to die... not even a chance to know her. _And he found that he wanted to, very much.

_You've done everything possible; the druid will do what he can. The Glade is close. Gink and I are running ahead to alert them._

Galmak urged his wolf faster and soon he saw two night elf sentinels running down the path with Gink and Palla in tow. He slowed to a cautious walk, despite the voice in his head that screamed for speed, demanded that he charge his wolf headlong into the small settlement in search of the druid. But this was no time to alarm anyone into shooting first and asking later. In badly broken Common he called out, attempting to communicate that he had one of their own, she was injured, and needed a druid. The sentinels exchanged a few words in Darnassian and one of them sprinted back down the path. The other approached cautiously and gasped when she saw Hyara's condition. At least there would be no mistake that somehow he himself had injured her; the fel corruption of the wound was obvious.

The sentinel came close enough to get a quick look at the wound, then gestured for Galmak to follow her. He urged his wolf forward in a walk, but she motioned more urgently and he shrugged and pushed his wolf to a run. To his surprise she kept up easily next to him and they reached the Glade in a few minutes. Galmak could have shouted with relief; a male night elf, obviously a druid, was waiting for them.

Hyara was singing softly as they pulled her gently off the wolf and lowered her to a blanket on the ground. The orcish words sounded harsh and strange to those who were helping her, but she didn't stop even as they cut away her tunic and touched her wound, sending fresh agony spiking through her. They also couldn't get her to let go of the orc's hand; she clung to it like a lifeline.

The druid's work took hours, and when he had done all he could he was drained of mana and exhausted. The draenei had had an incredibly close brush with an unspeakable fate, but she would live. It would take some time for her to recover. And oddly, it appeared that they would have an orc living among them for a while. The orc could barely speak any Common, so that story would have to wait until the draenei had recovered some, but for a short time they could tolerate one member of the Horde in their midst. The druid, and all others who had seen that wound, had a more troubling thought on their minds than a member of a hostile faction: what in Elune's name had been so twisted with demonic forces to have caused a wound so horrifying?

* * *


	3. The Beginning of Something Different

* * *

For the second time in a few days, Hyara felt herself swimming slowly back to wakefulness through a fog of confusion. This time there was not so much pain, she realized as she groggily tried to recall what had happened. There had been something evil calling her, but there had been a strong voice that had kept her anchored in herself. Galmak had succeeded. He must have gotten her to help.

Hyara's eyes fluttered open to a smiling night elf. "Welcome back," said the priestess. Hyara found her mouth was too dry to respond, but the priestess seemed to have anticipated this and handed her a glass of water. Hyara pushed herself up so she could drink and was surprised to find that she not only had the energy to sit, but she also felt little pain in her side.

"Thank you," the hunter was finally able to respond.

The night elf let out a shriek of consternation as Gink leapt onto the bed, his weight causing it to creak in protest. Hyara laughed and buried her face in the cat's soft, comfortingly familiar fur.

_Almost lost you, you know_, Gink sighed.

Hyara felt her eyes go misty and the things she'd intended to say earlier came out now. _I'm so sorry, Gink. I should have known better... I should have known we couldn't handle that by ourselves. I put you in terrible danger too. _She gave Gink a tight squeeze, then leaned back to look at him. _I- I'll understand if you don't want to stay._

A low, menacing growl rumbled in the cat's throat, and the priestess, who had moved to the other side of the room out of respect for the hunter/pet communion that was clearly taking place, jumped and stifled another shriek.

_You know damn well I'm not going anywhere. You also know that it was partly my fault too... I should have listened to my better judgment and kept us away from that thing._

Hyara sighed. _I know you wouldn't leave. But it needed to be said anyway, if you can understand that._

Gink looked at her sideways. _He's still here, by the way_.

Hyara started and gave the cat a look of her own. _Can I not hide _anything _from you anymore?_ She realized Galmak had been a persistent presence at the back of her mind since before she had opened her eyes. Hyara turned and caught the night elf casting furtive glances in her direction. The night elf took Hyara's look as an indication that it would no longer be rude to intrude, and came back to stand next to the bed. She deposited a tray of food on the table next to Hyara.

"Let me take another look at your wound," the priestess said and gently raised one side of the light cloth shirt Hyara now wore. The hunter looked down, not knowing what to expect, and was relieved at what she saw. Where the malignant, blue-green gash had once been, there was now only a long, blue scab surrounded by puckered skin.

"I'm afraid you'll always have a scar," the priestess said apologetically. "But the infection was so far along, it was only Elune's miracle that Golhine was able to cleanse you at all."

"A scar is a small price to pay for my life," Hyara responded. "And I want to thank- Golhine?- for what he did." She hesitated; but Gink had said he was still here, so surely it would do no harm to ask. "The orc who brought me here... is he here?"

Hyara flinched when she saw the priestess's eyes spark with intense curiosity at the mention of Galmak, and she thought wryly that the rumor mill had probably already been working overtime by now. But of course they would want an explanation; it wasn't every day that a member of the Alliance had her life saved by a member of the Horde.

The priestess nodded. "Yes, he's still at the Glade. In fact, he's been here with you most of the past two days. He finally left only a few minutes before you woke up, I believe because he felt his wolf needed to hunt." The night elf raised her eyebrows. "I think he'll be disappointed he wasn't here when you awoke."

Ah. Hyara tried not to let her face betray her, but that was... interesting, and for some reason it made her want to grin like an idiot. Instead she made a show of scratching Gink behind the ears.

"There are many here who would wish to hear the story of what happened to you," the priestess continued. "And many who are concerned about what creature caused such a terrible wound." The priestess grasped Hyara's hand, urgency and fear creeping into her voice. "Felwood is far more corrupted than we knew if there are such creatures living here, and it may be growing worse. We must find the cause if that is true. Please, you must help us by telling us everything you can of this creature and where it came from."

Hyara nodded. "Of course." She wanted to smack herself for her selfishness, but she was relieved that it sounded as if people were more interested in hearing about the cause of her wound than about how Galmak was involved. _Well, what's selfish about that?_ she told herself indignantly. _I don't want any trouble for him after all he went through for me._

Across the room, the door creaked open slowly and Galmak appeared as he tried to enter as stealthily and quietly as his burly form would allow. He was so absorbed in getting the door closed as soundlessly as possible that he didn't even notice Hyara was sitting up in bed across the room. Palla did notice, however, and she gave a short bark which made Galmak jump and spin around. Hyara couldn't help herself and burst out laughing. The orc looked like a kid who'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The priestess smiled and gave Hyara a sidelong glance. "If you need anything at all, I'll be just in the next room." She closed the door as she left.

Hyara found that she suddenly felt shy. This man had saved her life and had seen her at her very worst, yet she hardly knew him. She certainly knew nothing personal about him beyond the fact that there could have been no one better with whom to trust her life.

Galmak's concern was too deep to notice her reticence. "Feeling better?" he asked, and she nodded.

Suddenly it was all too much and Hyara felt tears running down her cheeks. Galmak looked alarmed and took her hand in his, but Hyara threw her arms around him and sobbed.

"Thank you," she finally managed in a strangled whisper. It seemed wholly inadequate to her, but he understood what she meant. The orc patted her awkwardly on the back and she pulled away to wipe her eyes with the sheet.

Galmak looked away in embarrassment. "I'm glad I could do something, Hyara. I think... I think I would have been sad without knowing why if I'd never found you and you hadn't made it. Something about the world wouldn't have felt right." _Uh oh, _he thought. _Maybe I've gone a little too far. _"Uh... your wound's looking a lot better," he said hastily.

Hyara raised her eyebrows. Been peeking under her shirt, had he? But she smiled and pulled up her shirt slightly to reveal the long scar forming. "The priestess said I'd always have this. But it's a reminder of what my recklessness can get me."

Galmak almost said that it had gotten her some good along with the bad, but mentally cursed himself for a fool. Why would this beautiful draenei ever... He stood abruptly and turned to the window so she wouldn't see the look on his face.

Hyara mistook this for impatience and was a little hurt. "I'm sorry," she said. She seemed to be saying that a lot lately. "The priestess said you've spent a lot of time here over the past few days. I know you must wish you could be away from here." Hyara was surprised to hear that comment come out barbed.

Galmak turned around with a glare. "Why would I want to leave? I can leave any time I choose. You're safe here; you're healing. I wouldn't waste two days before deciding it was time to never see you again." He closed his mouth with a snap, but he'd already said it.

Hyara was speechless and she felt tears welling up again, but this time they were tears of relief. He really had stayed not because he felt it was his duty to see this through, but because he wanted to be near her. Maybe she was a fool, but she wanted Galmak around. She couldn't stand the thought that one of these days he would ride off, out of her life. But now she knew that he couldn't stand that thought either.

Galmak came back to sit next to her. "I don't want to leave you," he said simply.

Hyara blushed and looked down at her lap, shy again. "And I don't want you to leave. Maybe... we could travel together? I was planning on going to Winterspring, but I've never been there before..."

Galmak wanted to whoop with joy. She wanted to stay with him! "Now that's a coincidence, Palla and I were on our way to Winterspring also. And I have been there before, there's a goblin town I can take you to, and there are hot springs with pretty good fishing, and you've never seen so much snow..." He was babbling but he didn't care.

Hyara laughed at his delight and hugged him again. At that moment she couldn't have been happier, and all because of this orc. She never would have dreamed.

* * *

Hyara spent the next few days recuperating at the insistence of her healers. They took the opportunity to grill her about her near-fatal encounter, and she told them all she could despite the shame she felt at her poor judgment in deciding to attack the furbolg. It had been bigger and more aggressive-looking than any she had ever seen, and she had felt sure that eliminating it from Felwood would gain her favor in the eyes of the Timbermaw furbolg clan, as well as rid the other inhabitants of a clear menace to the unsteady, beleaguered progress they strove to make against Felwood's corruption. About these things she had been right; about her ability to take on the rogue furbolg she had greatly misjudged. The draenei hunter's tale made the residents of Talonbranch Glade deeply uneasy. How had that lone furbolg come to be in a part of the forest where none had ever been seen before? Why had it been alone? And most importantly, what had been wrong with it? This last question they hoped to answer. A party had been sent out on the first day of Hyara's recovery to try to find the furbolg's body and bring it back for study. They would have had only the vaguest idea of where to look for it if not for Galmak's help; Hyara had been thoroughly lost by the end of her frantic, harried flight through the underbrush as she tried to kite the monster.

Golhine the druid was troubled by one other thing he'd noticed about the encounter, but he avoided telling Hyara; the poor girl had gone through enough already. Hyara had explained about doing her best to kite the thing after she realized she couldn't let it stand still to tear Gink to shreds. But she had tried sending Gink in to hold its attention first while she gauged the monster's strength, and Golhine was struck by how Gink had escaped that fight comparatively unscathed. The cat had been wounded some, that was obvious, but nothing at all like what Hyara had suffered. Had he been lucky and escaped the worst of the creature's blows, or had that thing consciously known that it needed to infect the hunter, and not the pet. And if so, why?

* * *

When the fifth day dawned after her arrival at the Glade, Hyara felt fully ready to be on her way again. Galmak had his riding wolf packed up and he waited patiently in the weak morning sun as Hyara made a final purchase of arrows from one of the merchants. The orc was happier than he could ever remember being, and his good mood allowed him to ignore the stares and whispers from the Alliance around him. For the most part he'd felt strangely welcome here; Hyara had passed along what the Glade residents had explained to her: Galmak was tolerated because he had assisted one of their own, and because Hyara trusted and vouched for him. Also, the inhabitants of Felwood, both Horde and Alliance alike, had learned that at least limited cooperation in their dangerous home was sometimes necessary for their own survival, so they understood Hyara's willingness to accept the orc's help out of necessity. Nevertheless, all this time spent in an Alliance settlement had made the orc more uneasy with each passing day and he would be glad to be on the road north again and away from this cursed forest.

"All set," Hyara smiled as she packed the new arrows into her quiver.

Her smile sent a thrill through Galmak and he grinned back. She hoisted herself onto the riding wolf's back, this time without difficulty, and Galmak climbed on behind her. Hyara felt her stomach turn over and she couldn't help smiling to herself. Despite the sadness of losing her faithful elekk, she was going to enjoy traveling like this. Galmak was thinking exactly the same and he watched in fascination as she reached back to arrange her tail between them. What did it feel like? Would she smack him if he touched it? He gave a great bellow of laughter at that thought, and Hyara squeaked and jumped.

"You're in an awfully good mood," she teased.

"Just glad to get moving," he grinned.

Gink and Palla were glad too; they dashed around in the undergrowth like cubs, chasing each other, roaring and yelping at any small creatures stirred up by their ruckus. Hyara and Galmak laughed together at the scene and the orc urged the riding wolf to a lope. As they traveled, they talked. Hyara told him of her family, her parents who lived in Exodar, her grandfather, her older brother.

"My grandfather is the reason I grew up on Azeroth," she explained. "He's been a devoted follower of Velen for a very long time and he wouldn't hear of it when my parents wanted to risk staying on Draenor. Grandfather insisted that it was best for us all that we follow Velen wherever he would take us in the Exodar. And so we came here."

Hyara craned her neck to look back at Galmak when he remained silent. He was staring off to where Palla was nosing through the underbrush after something. "Galmak... are you alright?" The draenei was puzzled by his distantness.

He turned back to her and smiled. "Of course..." But he trailed off and silence fell again. She bit her lip, worried that she'd bored him with stories that couldn't mean anything to someone who didn't know the people involved.

"Please... will you tell me about your family?" she asked tentatively.

He shifted behind her and patted the wolf's side. "Oh, there's not much of a story there. I was born on Azeroth, my parents live on a small farm near Orgrimmar. No brothers or sisters. See? Boring, really." He chuckled.

Hyara let out an exasperated "pffft." "I told you more, cheater. Talk about a bad exchange rate."

"Well sorry, lady, but I can't give you as much ammunition as you gave me, I don't have any siblings," he grinned wickedly. "I can't match any stories involving brothers who decide to give their sister a haircut..."

Hyara groaned; she knew she shouldn't have told him that, but it was so typical of her brother that it had just come out when she talked about him. Fortunately his pranks had gotten more harmless -and more hilarious- over the years. Hyara felt a sudden stinging in her eyes and realized for the first time in months how much she missed them all.

She prodded Galmak further, and when he realized she was genuinely interested he told her more of his parents and their small farm in the Barrens where he had grown up and decided to become a hunter.

"Were you born there? Or in Orgrimmar?" she asked.

"No," he answered reluctantly. But he sighed and continued, "I was born in Arathi. When my parents were held in the internment camps there."

"I'm sorry I asked if it's painful for you to talk about it," Hyara said gently, and rested a hand on his leg.

"It's alright; I don't really mind telling you about it, but yeah, it's not something I choose to talk about in detail." But now Galmak wasn't thinking about his past anymore; his mind had snapped straight to Hyara's touch.

They had been climbing a steep hill for a short time now and Galmak's memory told him that the Timbermaw Hold was only a few minutes' travel away. "Nearly there," he said. "You're sure they'll let you pass?"

"They... they will," she answered with a slight tremor in her voice. "I don't think they trust me much, but they'll let me pass through the Hold as long as I'm quick about it."

Galmak himself had no fear of the Timbermaw furbolg and was even on speaking terms with them. But Hyara had not had as much contact with them, and then there was her incident... That of course had not been a Timbermaw, she told herself firmly. But still a furbolg, and now she would have to travel through the heart of their Hold with watchful, mistrusting furbolg eyes on her every step of the way. She felt a hint of fear begin to grip her and she pushed a little closer to Galmak's reassuring solidness behind her back.

"It's alright," he whispered as they approached the furbolgs standing guard outside the Hold. "I won't let anything harm you."

And for the moment she was lost in the bliss of that reassurance.

The pair of Timbermaw guards eyed them suspiciously as they approached, but one called out, "Orc, you are known to us. You are welcome to our Hold." He turned his eyes to Hyara. "This one... I do not recognize her."

"Her name is Hyara. I believe she's had some honorable dealings with your people before," Galmak responded. He squeezed her hand reassuringly.

The guard retrieved a piece of paper from a pouch at his side and skimmed over it. "Ah, here. Hyara... yes. She is permitted to travel through our Hold, but she may not linger and she may not speak to anyone. Can you vouch for her, orc?"

"I can, on my honor," Galmak said.

They dismounted, as they were not permitted to ride through the Hold. Galmak led his riding wolf forward to the entrance, but turned back when he realized Hyara wasn't following. He sent the wolf on in with a pat to its side and extended a hand to the draenei where she hung back with Gink. The draenei was trembling under the suspicious gaze of the two huge Timbermaw guards, and she took Galmak's hand gratefully.

"I'm so sorry... You'll think I'm a coward," she whispered to Galmak as they passed inside.

"I would never think that. This is a temporary fear and you'll get past it. It must be like looking at death looking back at you." He jerked his head in the direction of the guards. Hyara smiled weakly and wished she could see them once more as big, extra-hairy teddy bears.

They had been traveling for a while through the twisting corridors when Hyara realized that she was still holding Galmak's hand. Embarrassed, and afraid that he would think her weak, she dropped it hastily. He pretended not to notice, but he was disappointed. They passed the rest of the way through the Hold in silence.

At last they turned a corner and saw the exit. Hyara couldn't help it; she dashed into the muted, cloudy sunlight of Winterspring with relief. But the world before her brought her to a breathless halt and she gasped in wonderment. All around was pristine, soft whiteness. Snow swirled down in eddies to frost the tall dark pines, tracing feathery flakes across Hyara's cheeks. The wind whispered to the trees in a lonely, sighing voice, as if it were unwilling to break the underlying silence that pervaded this strange crystalline landscape. The path out of the Hold made a sharp right turn, and it was easy to see why; straight ahead a short distance was a bubbling pond with clouds of steam rising from the surface. Those must be the hot springs Galmak had mentioned. The air was so cold that even the heat from the springs couldn't keep the snow at bay for more than a few feet above the banks. Hyara had seen snow before; there was always snow in Dun Morogh. But this... This place was all its own.

She felt Galmak come up beside her and drape a blanket over her shoulders. She realized she had been standing there shivering, staring wide-eyed while she froze.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" the orc commented. "This land has eyes, I always thought. You come out of the tunnel and can't help but stare, but at the same time this place is looking right back, sizing you up. It feels like it's been like this for an eternity." Hyara could only agree.

They mounted back up and set off down the path that would eventually lead them to the goblin town of Everlook, but it wasn't long before Hyara was wondering just how hot the springs were and whether it was possible to bathe in them. A dip in a nice, toasty pool sounded like the best thing in the world right now. Galmak chuckled when she mentioned it; the hot springs were a famous reward for anyone who made it safely through the Timbermaw tunnel and he could use a little warming up himself. He turned the wolf and headed off the path.

Hyara dismounted a bit gingerly, as all the walking through the Hold had made her side a little stiff and sore. She shivered with delight as the warm steam blew over her on the bank of the spring. She turned back to untie her pack from the saddle and shrieked, covering her eyes. Galmak had his shirt off and had just started to strip off his pants.

"What are you doing!" the draenei asked, flabbergasted. "I'm right_ here!_"

Galmak supposed he should have thought of that; not every race was as casual as orcs tended to be. But it wasn't as if he'd intended to drop his underwear too. Hyara snorted with laughter at that, in spite of herself. "And I wasn't going to stand there and watch you undress, if that's what you're worried about," he said a little grumpily. Was he that hard on her eyes?

She must have read his mind though because she said teasingly, "Well don't get in a huff, it's not as if I mind the view. But a little warning next time, hmm? Now in, and turn your back so I can get in; I'm turning into an icicle!" She stuck out her tongue and turned her back so he could finish undressing. He grinned and shook his head. A moment later Hyara heard a massive cannonball splash and she peeked to be sure that Galmak had his back turned, then stripped down to her underclothes. She dipped a hoof gingerly in the water and found that it was the perfect temperature. Hyara slipped in up to her neck and called to Galmak on the other side of the pool, "Okay, I'm in... you can turn around."

The water felt wonderful. "Oh Light, this was a mistake... I'm never going to want to get out," she moaned, closing her eyes. Galmak chuckled and moved closer so they could talk over the bubbling and fizzing of the water.

His face grew serious. "I'm sorry about that, back there. I wasn't thinking, and I didn't know it would bother you. Cultural difference, I suppose."

"It's alright. I didn't really mind... much," she added mischievously.

"Over here," Galmak beckoned and moved to one side of the pool. There was a large flat rock a few feet below the surface, perfect for sitting on. It looked suspiciously out of place, as if it had been moved there by someone long ago for just this purpose. Hyara sat next to him and tried not to think about how clear the warm water was and how she couldn't seem to keep her eyes from wandering to Galmak's muscular form below the surface. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments, Galmak with his eyes closed. _He's respecting my privacy_, she realized, and it occurred to her that she wished he would open his eyes for a moment and take a peek. Hyara sank a little lower in the water in embarrassment. Why was she suddenly feeling so bold?

She broke the silence, hoping he would open his eyes. "Does Palla ever come in? When you swim in here."

He did open his eyes, and looked at her face. "She does sometimes. It's a little warm for her though; she'd rather be off exploring."

Hyara nodded. She could feel Gink prowling around nearby, absorbed in a mini-hunt for some rabbit or squirrel. Only the greatest need could induce him to put a paw into anything but the shallowest of streams.

Galmak had closed his eyes again. She knew it was childish, but she was suddenly overcome with the urge to dunk him. _Too bad he could probably sit there like a rock and not move at all while I tried with all my strength_, she thought ruefully. In all likelihood she'd be the one who ended up underwater. She moved off the rock and out to the center of the spring where it was deeper. Here the spring sent up gouts of bubbles and foam frothing to the surface.

"Oh! It's warmer out here," she called.

Galmak nodded and treaded over to join her. At that moment some movement on the bank to the east caught her eye and she took a sharp breath. She was suddenly filled with unease and she swam back to the rock, ready to leap out of the spring.

"What's wrong?" Galmak was concerned, but he thought he knew the cause of her sudden wariness.

"I saw something moving over there, behind that cluster of trees. It... Galmak, it looked like a furbolg. Am I going crazy and seeing them everywhere now?"

He sighed and shook his head. "No, you probably did see one. Maybe I should have warned you, but they don't usually come so close to the springs. The Winterfall furbolg live in this area. They aren't friendly to outsiders and they're enemies of the Timbermaw. They sometimes send runners down the path between their villages; we might see them on our way to Everlook. They only very rarely bother travelers though," he added hastily.

Despite Galmak's reassurances, Hyara no longer felt much like relaxing without armor or weapons in a hot spring. She sent out a brief warning to Gink but she could sense that he had known for some time and had given the furbolgs a wide berth.

"I think I'd like to get out now," she said, feeling stupid and cowardly, but unable to resist the fear she felt. No longer thinking about whether Galmak was or wasn't looking at her, Hyara climbed onto the bank and hastily wrapped a blanket around her instantly freezing body. The worst part of it was that Galmak looked sorry for her. He didn't say a word though, only followed her out, and she wrapped a blanket around him. "I'm sorry," she said, squeezing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath. "I don't know why I feel this way. I know I shouldn't."

"It will pass," he said softly, and then he pulled her close to him. She hated herself for feeling so weak and vulnerable, but at the same time the feel of Galmak holding her, of being pressed against him, gave her strength.

That night they made camp just off the path. Galmak had decided that the dangers of the path and anyone who might be traveling it were less than the dangers of venturing too far into the wild forest of Winterspring, so they had pitched a makeshift tent over a nearby tree limb with the blankets they had used to dry off after the hot springs. Hyara started a merry little fire just outside the tent and set about roasting the rabbit Gink had caught. Galmak eyed a hole in his boot and wished for the thousandth time that he could repair it himself, but he had never learned. Engineering suited him fine most of the time, but he really ought to be able to patch a hole in his own boot, for gods' sake.

"I don't suppose you're a leatherworker," he said a little sheepishly.

"Hmm? Oh, no... I'm a jewelcrafter," she replied. Many of her people were, but Hyara had jumped on the bandwagon only because she genuinely enjoyed it.

After their meal Galmak gave a tremendous yawn. He glanced inside the tiny blanket tent, then said, "You're sure you don't want me to sleep out here..."

Hyara rolled her eyes. "We already discussed that, don't be absurd. Even if you weren't frozen solid by morning, I wouldn't be able to find you under the snow. There's room enough in there. Besides, it'll be warmer." She smiled to herself. She was going to sleep tonight curled up next to him. She liked that idea very much.

Galmak liked that idea too, but he told himself sternly to wipe from his mind the image that kept floating before him: the brief glimpse he'd had of Hyara as she climbed dripping wet and nearly naked from the hot spring. He hastily crawled inside the tent and pulled a blanket over himself. Hyara ducked inside a moment later with a couple more blankets. She tossed one to Galmak and covered herself with the other.

"We can share that one," she said as she lay down on the bedroll. Galmak was glad now that he'd heeded his remembrances of Winterspring's harsh climate and packed a few blankets more than what he normally carried. He realized though that the blanket she'd thrown him was one of her own and it carried her scent. Furtively he pressed his face to it and inhaled her sweet, earthy scent that was so different and alien in a way he couldn't identify.

Hyara removed her mail chestpiece so she could sleep in her more comfortable linen shirt, then stretched out on her side with her back to Galmak. She giggled. "My hooves are sticking out." She yawned and rubbed her side where she still felt some stiffness and the occasional twinge in her muscles. Galmak was silent behind her, and she thought he had fallen asleep already. Without thinking or worrying about whether she should, Hyara scooted backwards in the small space and pressed her back against him. He too was lying on his side, facing her, and she sighed and closed her eyes, sure she would sleep better now. She was surprised when she felt his arm encircle her and pull her closer. Hyara was suddenly unsure if she'd sleep at all, and Galmak was wondering the same thing. The draenei bit her lip in frustration; she was such a fool, this was only for warmth and because of the close quarters. Who was she to this orc? Why would he feel that way about her? He had wanted to travel with her, but that didn't mean...

With a shock Hyara realized that something about this had to mean something or other, because she was feeling... She blushed furiously in the darkness. Something was poking into her lower back. Galmak seemed to realize at exactly the same moment because he suddenly jumped back. The silence was deafening for a moment. Then Galmak let out a long breath.

"I'm...so...sorry," he groaned, and hid his face behind a hand.

But Hyara turned over to face him. "Don't be sorry," she whispered with a smile, and traced a long, graceful finger down his cheek to the tip of one of his tusks.

Galmak bundled her into his arms and kissed her. She moaned softly and twined her arms around his neck in the rapture of the moment that had finally come. He was sweet and gentle yet passionate in his kisses, and she never wanted it to end.

"Mmmm, Galmak," she sighed his name lovingly when finally they broke apart.

He smiled and rested his palm against her cheek, then whispered her name, "Hyara..."

She kissed his hand, then bit it softly. Hyara felt she could spend the entire night like this, just staring into his eyes and glowing in the bliss of this feeling. But the weariness of the day had finally caught up to her and she felt her eyelids drooping. "I don't want to sleep yet," she whispered, and Galmak laughed softly. He gathered her in his arms as she drifted into dreams that caused a small smile to flicker across her beautiful face, and he soon joined her in a deep, contented sleep.

Outside their tiny cocoon of warmth, the snow whirled and whispered of things to come.

* * *


	4. Trouble

* * *

Hyara woke just before dawn with Galmak's arms still wrapped around her.

"Good morning," he said and kissed her.

She stretched and nuzzled him. "Don't tell me you didn't sleep."

He shook his head. "I only woke up a few hours ago so Gink could get a little rest. He said some Winterfall passed by in the night but barely glanced at us."

Winterfall, walking by only a few steps from where they had slept, oblivious. It made Hyara shudder, even though Galmak had warned her the day before of the possibility.

_Stop it, girl_, Gink growled from nearby, ever aware of his mistress's moods. _You've got to stop pushing yourself to be afraid. _

"Gink has the right of it," she said in a small voice.

"Hmm?" Galmak had his eyes closed and was relishing the feeling of holding her.

"Gink said I have to stop pushing myself to fear them. I... I feel that I should be afraid of them... being afraid might keep me from making another stupid mistake. I don't know what could have happened if you hadn't found me. I might have died... but it might have been worse than that." She fell silent.

"Hyara, what do you mean it might have been worse? I saw you, saw how bad it was. That was a killing wound. I don't know what you mean by something worse than dying."

She shuddered, remembering. "I don't understand exactly either. But I was tainted. There was something going on inside me, something was..." She could barely bring herself to voice her fears but she continued, "...something was fighting me for control."

Galmak felt a chill grip him. This sounded all too familiar to an orc who had grown up hearing the stories and warnings of his parents- parents who had firsthand experience of demonic corruption.

As if mirroring his thoughts, Hyara said in a near-whisper, "All the things I heard as a child, everything that happened on Argus and Draenor..." There was a look of terror in her eyes. "I was being corrupted from the inside out. I'm not afraid of furbolgs, Galmak. I'm afraid that my stupid overconfidence almost... almost had me joining the ranks of the man'ari eredar. Furbolgs are just the reminder." To her surprise, voicing her fears had calmed her.

Galmak was stunned. Surely she was overstating things? But maybe not. Only she knew what had been going on inside her as that wound gnawed away at her life. "Hyara, how can that be? How could that thing have been so evil that it could do that to you?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea." She looked at him and reached to brush her hand over his cheek. "Your people were not the only ones corrupted by the Burning Legion."

Galmak had nothing to say to that. His thoughts on that matter were too tied up in knots, and raised emotions he'd rather not deal with. Sometimes he felt deadly angry with his parents for passing knowledge of their guilt on to their son; then there were times when he was grateful he knew all he did because it was his heritage, all the horror of it, and if shouldering a small part of the burden could help atone, then so be it. And how did Hyara fit into all this? She was a draenei... she was one of the innocent who had suffered at the hands of the Legion. Galmak was too honest with himself not to wonder if he had begun traveling this road with her out of guilt. He choked on that thought and knew it couldn't be true. He loved her, he knew, even after so short a time. But how to deserve her? Why did she love him? Or did she love him.

"Whatever happened, it's passed now," he said gently. He recognized the irony of his words. "I won't let anything happen to you. I'll fight the entire Legion for you if I have to."

Hyara smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you," she whispered, and was instantly afraid of having her heart broken.

But she needn't have worried. Galmak growled and hugged her so tightly it left her breathless. "I love you too. And you have no idea how much I wanted to hear you say that."

_Not to intrude... _Palla's thought came delicately into his mind.

_But intrude you will. I know, it's time to get moving, _he replied a little gruffly. Palla had made it abundantly clear since Hyara's days of recovery at the Glade that the wolf did not understand all this finicky maneuvering that seemed to accompany humanoids' relationships. She didn't understand it, but she respected it at least.

He released Hyara and started to speak, but she beat him to it. "Time to go," she sighed, and he smiled and nodded.

"We'll be in Everlook by early evening," he said. "But until then, I'll have my arms around you all I want."

She laughed and they started to pack up their little camp. Hyara suspected that she would always have a fondness for Winterspring and for this spot in particular.

* * *

"Master, I have some news which will please you."

"Oh?" He was distracted; this new succubus was better than most.

"One who meets your specifications has entered Winterspring."

He shoved the succubus roughly aside. "You are certain?"

The imp shrank from his master's sudden attention. "Y-yes, master... That is to say, I have been assured by those I sent out for the purpose of watching... th-they are certain. There is also a traveling companion who may prove useful."

The master appeared satisfied with this for now. Any who were wrong would of course pay with their lives. "Very well... See that they are brought here. Both alive and in good condition. I'm sure I needn't tell you how very important that is. I suggest you be absolutely certain those you send know that as well."

The imp bowed and fled from his master's smoldering glare.

* * *

Everlook was smaller than Hyara had expected, and nearly deserted. A few goblin merchants could be seen going about their business, but the real life of the town took place inside out of the cold. The two hunters confirmed that there would be room in the stables for Gink and Palla, then headed for the warmth of the inn. On the way to Everlook they had discussed how they ought to behave once they reached the town and had come to the conclusion that it would depend solely on how many Horde and Alliance were around. The goblins wouldn't care if a draenei and an orc were travelling together; in fact, goblins were known for their discretion and could probably be counted on not to advertise it to either faction.

The inn too was nearly deserted, but Hyara groaned to herself when she saw a male draenei, a vindicator from the looks of it, seated at a back table. He was reading something and didn't even glance up as they walked in.

The innkeeper yawned. "Have a seat if you want something, kiddos. You'll both be wanting rooms? Twenty-five silver extra for running water."

"Yes, please," Hyara said, and Galmak nodded. Hyara chose a table as far as she could get from the other draenei and hoped that his book would keep him absorbed. Galmak sat down across from her after an uneasy look across the room.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Hyara said in a low voice. "He'll probably mind his business. And we can't hide from everybody all the time."

Galmak shrugged but kept the paladin in his line of sight.

The innkeeper trundled over carrying two plates laden with food and plopped them down on the table. "Special'a the day. Sorry 'bout the lack of choice, but there aren't enough people through here lately for me to pull out the menus. Rooms are thataway, first ones you come to." They thanked her and she disappeared back into the kitchen.

"He's finally decided to notice us," Galmak said. Hyara risked a glance and saw that the draenei appeared to be trying to stare Galmak down. As soon as he saw Hyara notice though, he smiled at her. Hyara groaned inwardly as the paladin rose and came over to their table.

"Hello," he said in draenei, and Hyara smiled as sincerely as she could. "Traveling with this orc? I don't blame you for wanting someone to travel with around here; Winterspring can be quite dangerous." He was clearly feigning nonchalance; Hyara could feel the tension sparking between the orc and the paladin. Galmak had half-risen from his seat.

"I am traveling with him. He's proved to be a decent guide, as he promised. I'm Hyara, by the way," she said smoothly and extended her hand, turning her body so that she was squarely between the two men.

The paladin stopped glaring at Galmak and took her hand to shake. "I'm Dalthus," he said, bowing slightly. He chuckled and said, "If you're interested in having a guide you can understand better, I could take over the task myself. I was planning on leaving Winterspring tomorrow, but for you I wouldn't mind staying."

Hyara smiled and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Oh no, Dalthus, I wouldn't dream of making you change your plans just for me. I will be absolutely fine on my own. Besides," she added with a dismissive wave, "I'm told I speak orcish like a native." She turned back to her plate. Dalthus's face fell, and Galmak hid a grin as the draenei walked back to his table dejectedly. Galmak could almost feel sorry for him; whatever Hyara had said had stopped him cold.

Hyara made a face as she turned back to Galmak. "Was I rude? I hate being rude... He's probably a nice guy, despite... er, coming on a little strong." She sighed. "We can't rebuff everyone who tries to talk to us. Galmak, how is this going to work?" she said in distress.

He gave her hand a squeeze and shrugged. "I don't know how it's going to work. We'll just have to play it as we go along."

"Alright you two, no bedroom eyes out here," the innkeeper said, bustling over and clearing away the plates. Hyara jumped and blushed dark blue and Galmak instantly dropped her hand and became very interested in the tabletop. The innkeeper raised an eyebrow. "Ahh, so that's how it is..." She nudged Galmak with an elbow. "Aight, if you're trying ta play it close to your chest, I won't give ya away. Eh... so it is _two_ rooms you want still?"

"Two rooms are fine," Galmak growled firmly.

"Okay then. But you two could be in for some trouble, ya know."

"As if we didn't know," Hyara muttered as the innkeeper walked off, clucking to herself and shaking her head. Hyara gave Galmak a furtive glance, then lowered her eyes to her lap.

Galmak was looking at her quizzically. "What's wrong? Don't... uh, don't worry about her. She's just making talk." He gestured toward the innkeeper.

"It's nothing. Nothing's wrong," Hyara replied and rose abruptly.

Galmak followed her, sensing trouble. "Hyara, tell me." They reached his room and he held the door open. "Please... will you talk?" She shrugged and walked over to one of the round windows inside the room. Night had fully fallen by now and the pale domed buildings of the tiny goblin town glowed ghostly with reflected light from the snow that lay on every surface not cleared for walking.

As Galmak closed the door Hyara rounded on him. "We are in for trouble, just like she said."

The orc sighed, but partially with relief. He hadn't done anything wrong then. "I don't care," he said. That was pretty much how he felt, consequences be damned. He'd worry about complications as they came up.

Hyara laughed incredulously. "You really don't. I don't either. Light, this is wonderful," she whispered. He closed the distance between them in an instant and all Hyara could care about was how good his lips 

felt pressed against hers. Her hands moved over his body, searching for gaps in his armor where she could feel the warmth of his skin and the strength in his muscles. Galmak's hands moved over her too, sliding along her sides and then coming to rest on her butt. He gave it a firm squeeze and then wrapped a huge hand around her tail and gave it a gentle tug. She wanted more from him and she moaned with longing.

Abruptly he broke away, and Hyara was horrified to see shame on his face. "What? Galmak, what?"

He felt terrible and knelt in front of her as she sank down to sit on the bed. "Hyara... I'm so sorry. It's nothing you've done." How to explain without hurting her? That was the last thing he wanted; the reason for his reticence. "I... I'm afraid of hurting you."

"Why? We just talked about that... I don't care what kind of problems we run into. Galmak, I meant it when I said I love you. But if you didn't mean it-" There were tears rolling down her cheeks now. Why would he suddenly do this to her?

Galmak shook his head and looked down at his hands. "That's not it at all, I do love you." He took a deep breath. "Hyara, you seem so young... so inexperienced. I want you to be sure..." He floundered in embarrassment. "I want you to be sure before... uh, before we do anything. I just don't want you to regret it." He finally convinced himself to stop examining his hands and looked up to her face.

Hyara's mouth had opened in shock once she realized where Galmak was going with this. He thought she was inexperienced? Well, she was...in a way... but that was beside the point. He could tell. What other "inadequacies" had he found? Or would he find? She was terribly embarrassed, and although she knew it was ridiculous, she was also hurt. He was only looking out for her. He loved her. And yet there it was: she was hurt. She wiped her eyes and stared straight ahead.

"Since you want to know," Hyara said in a flat voice, "I'm not completely 'inexperienced,' as you put it. He was a friend from childhood and we met again during our training in Exodar. It was a mistake, years ago. I haven't seen him since." She rose.

Galmak was horrified at how badly his concern had backfired. "I- I didn't want to know, that's not what I meant." He slapped a palm to his forehead. "Hyara, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you, I really didn't want it like this. I love you, I don't want to hurt you," he said desperately.

"It's alright," she said woodenly and stepped into the hallway. "Good night, Galmak." He heard her door close down the short hallway.

Galmak paced for a moment, not knowing what to do and cursing himself for a bumbling fool. Finally he strode out and knocked loudly on her door. "Hyara. Let me in, we have to talk." No answer. "Hyara, please? I'm so sorry, you have no idea..." He turned the doorknob and pushed inside, determined to set right this mess he'd made.

Galmak stopped short in shock. Hyara was slumped on the floor next to the bed, her eyes closed. The room's single window stood open and snow whirled around her motionless body, stirring her hair. Galmak sprang into the room, but a movement behind the door caught his eye; he turned, but not fast enough. He had time to catch a glimpse of a felguard's twisted, ugly face before his head rung from a vicious blow and he crumpled to the floor.

* * *


	5. Pain and Darkness

A/N: Final warning; here's where the M rating really kicks in.

* * *

Hyara awoke to a spinning vertigo and frigid air rushing over her face. She looked down and the breath left her; the white-capped trees and hills of Winterspring sped by hundreds of feet below. She took a deep, calming breath and looked up to see her captor. It was a gargoyle, its talons digging into her arms.

_Hyara? Hyara, what's going on?_

_Gink! I don't know... I didn't see anything, I walked into my room and something hit me..._

_I got there too late to see anything either. Palla and I are trying to keep up but we're losing ground fast._ _You're going south..._ Even as he said this the thought wavered and lost strength, as if traveling from a great distance.

_Gink!_ She called desperately, but she could no longer reach him. Hyara craned her neck to look to the left and saw the pale form of another gargoyle carrying a dark bulk.

"Galmak!" She yelled as loudly as she could, the wind whipping her voice away. But he heard her and shouted back. Hyara instinctively wanted to struggle, but she knew that a fall from this height would kill her.

They flew on in the rushing wind for what seemed like hours until below them the ground began to change. The faceless white blanket of snow fell away into a yawning chasm, the bottom of which was lost in the haze of swirling snow and the dark of the night. Hyara glimpsed movement near the edge of the chasm and a strangled cry escaped her; muted moonlight gleamed off the enormous crystalline back of a rock giant. Then suddenly they had left the chasm behind and there were no more trees beneath them. The terrain was rocky with cliffs closing in on the sides, and Hyara thought she could make out black smoke rising in places. Now she could see pools of fel-tainted water lying stagnant between tumbled boulders and blackened craters. She shuddered in horror as she realized that the land was crawling with demons; she could sense them below her. Out of the darkness and smoke a fortress loomed in front of them, blackened and pitted stone walls rising out of the top of one of the cliffs. With their destination in sight the gargoyles picked up speed and Hyara screamed as the walls rushed to meet them, thinking the things meant to dash them against the stone. But the monsters dived abruptly and they were rushing through a pitch-black tunnel into the wall of the fortress. Another dive into a narrow shaft sent Hyara's stomach into her throat. Now she could see a red glow of firelight at the bottom of the shaft. Suddenly they burst into the full glare of a large hall, the gargoyle at last released its grip, and Hyara fell a few yards to the stone floor. Galmak landed with a grunt next to her. The gargoyles cackled and shot back up through the shaft in the ceiling.

Hyara was breathing heavily in shock and fear, and she crawled shakily over to Galmak as he struggled to his feet. He helped her up and ran his hands down her arms in concern as if checking for broken bones. She winced as he touched her head.

"I'm alright. Something hit me and knocked me out," she said.

"It was a felguard," he said grimly. "One got me too. Hyara... I don't know what's going on here, so I want to say this now. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me for earlier?"

"I'm sorry too. Of course I forgive you." They squeezed hands tightly and didn't let go; a small misunderstanding meant nothing now.

They surveyed the room they had been dropped in. All around them was grey-brown stone: walls, ceiling, and floor divided into massive blocks. Torches flickered in brackets lining the walls. There was a wide fireplace at the opposite end of the room where a fire roared and sent red light and shadows skittering to all corners of the hall. Several yards in front of the fireplace sat an enormous black iron throne. The metal was twisted and cruelly sharp, and it cast ugly shadows that leapt wildly in the flickering firelight. All was silent except for the roar of the fire. As the pair turned to the back of the room they saw heavy double doors set in the back wall opposite the fireplace, the wood banded with the same black iron of the throne. Hyara gripped the cold metal knobs and pulled with all her strength, but the doors were locked.

"Do you have any idea where we are? Gink said we were traveling south, but they couldn't keep up," she whispered and moved close to Galmak's side.

He grasped her hand again and continued surveying the room. "That's about all Palla could tell me too. I wasn't out very long, but they moved fast getting us away from Everlook. Palla and Gink knew we were... uh, arguing, so they kept their distance. By the time they realized something was actually wrong it was too late."

A strangely familiar gibbering came suddenly from behind them and they whirled. An imp sat in the shadows of a corner at the back of the hall, its fel eyes glowing malevolently.

"Where are we and why are we here?" Hyara demanded in what she hoped was a firm, steady voice. The imp cackled madly and flipped backward in response.

"Who is your master?" Galmak growled.

The sound of footsteps carried hollowly from the other end of the hall. Hyara and Galmak turned together away from the imp, and from this vantage point they could see a black doorway hidden near the fireplace where the throne had blocked it from view. Hyara felt a paralyzing chill grip her and turn her breathing ragged. She recognized what Galmak had not yet- it wasn't footsteps approaching from the hall beyond that doorway; that was the sound of hooves on stone.

"Galmak," she whispered. All the terrifying stories of her childhood were flooding back into her mind. "Th-that's... it's..."

A huge shape paused briefly in the doorway, studying them with piercing fel-green eyes. Hyara heard Galmak's intake of breath and the orc gripped her hand more tightly as the eredar strode into the hall and sat on the massive throne. Silence filled the hall once again. Hyara realized her mouth and eyes were wide in terror and she tried to force herself to calm. The reality of an eredar was more than the image she'd seen so many times in Exodar had prepared her for. In many particulars he was not much different from a draenei male: high, ridged forehead; thick facial tendrils, muscular tail, hooves. But there was no mistaking him for a draenei, even at a distance. He was at least two heads taller than Hyara, and his skin was a strange dusty blue, the color of a stormy sky. His broad chest was decorated with faint runic tracings, and wide gold bands ornamented his biceps, wrists, tail and tendrils. Other than the gold bands, he wore only a short mail kilt which also bore runes. The eredar locked his eyes with Hyara's and she found she couldn't look away.

"Tell me your name." His voice rumbled deeply and seemed to fill her ears, blocking all other sound. Hyara remained silent more out of terror than a desire to disobey, and suddenly she was gasping on all fours on the stone floor as pain ripped through her body.

"I asked for your name," the eredar said.

"Hyara," she choked, and the pain subsided. Galmak's hands were shaking as he helped her up, but there was deep anger in his eyes. The orc stepped forward, putting himself between Hyara and the eredar.

"My name is Galmak," he said, and Hyara admired the steadiness of his voice. "And if you hurt her again-" But he couldn't finish; he too fell to the floor writhing in pain.

The eredar glanced at Galmak coldly, as if at an animal that shouldn't have been allowed inside. "You were not told to speak." The monster's face twisted into a frown as Hyara dropped to the floor at Galmak's side and tried desperately to comfort him in some way to ease the pain.

"Stop! Stop hurting him!" she screamed, but the eredar didn't release Galmak. In a desperate rage Hyara sprang to her hooves and flew at the monster, but as she approached he reached out and wrapped a huge, powerful fist around her neck. Behind her, Galmak's torture ceased and he staggered to his feet. Hyara stood motionless. The eredar held her firmly but without choking her, his luminous eyes boring into hers.

"What is this orc to you? You give yourself to a beast?" He flung her roughly to the floor and stood. "Nevertheless. Perhaps you are wondering why you are here." His mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "I am Sarzuun. I have been in this place many years at the behest of the Legion, keeping a close eye on the petty activities of the new Horde and the Alliance. I have many demons under my command... and many succubae who will do everything I wish. But I grow tired of them. Lately I have desired a woman of my former kind, and I sent out minions into Winterspring to watch."

Hyara felt horror and revulsion rising within her. Next to her Galmak was seething, his fists clenching and unclenching.

"You won't touch her," the orc rumbled menacingly.

"And you, orc." The eredar turned his eyes to Galmak. "You may be useful to me. There is no need to waste your miserable life. Your kind can perform well as minions once you have been properly... conditioned."

Hyara's eyes darted around the hall, and she prayed that somehow they'd missed a way to escape. Surely this couldn't be happening. What this monster wanted from her didn't bear thinking of, and what he would do to Galmak... He was only here because he'd been with her. There might be no way out for herself, but she couldn't let this happen to Galmak. Hyara summoned all the calm she could muster and met Sarzuun's eyes.

"You have me," she said. "I'm what you set out to find. But this orc is irrelevant; it will cost you nothing to let him go." Now her voice shook, but she had to continue. "I'll do everything you want without complaint if you'll let him go safely."

Galmak growled in anger and started to speak, but the eredar's laughter reverberated throughout the hall and drowned him out. "Foolish girl. I will use you, yes, and I care nothing for any 'complaints' you wish to issue, or not. But perhaps I might eventually find you worthy of a higher destiny." He leaned forward and gazed at her intently. "Your kind, even you 'draenei' as you call yourselves, have it in you to become great masters of the Legion. Perhaps if you survive my... tests... I will make you man'ari. It may be true that I lose nothing by turning out this beast-" He glanced disgustedly at Galmak. "-but I also lose nothing by keeping him. He will stay. If I see potential in him, he will live."

He would make her man'ari. The very thing Hyara had dreaded was happening to her in Felwood. She clutched at Galmak and felt despair settling over her.

"Hyara," he whispered. "I love you." She looked into his eyes and saw his helplessness and frustration. He pulled her close and they clung to each other, for one last moment ignoring their danger and oblivious to the angry spark that had kindled in the eredar's cold eyes as he watched them.

Sarzuun didn't look away from the pair, but rose slowly to his hooves and made a gesture in the air. Several felguards appeared in the darkened doorway near the fireplace; they were dragging something noisily behind them. Galmak turned to look but Hyara buried her face in his broad shoulder and let her tears come. They would be separated and she wouldn't see him again. She would never let this monster make her a man'ari eredar, and that left her with only one path: she would have to die. No matter what, Sarzuun could not find her "worthy." And what of Galmak? Hyara couldn't believe that the orc would allow himself to be corrupted into a servant of the Legion. But it was his own path to follow, and for now she wanted only to be with him for a few more precious seconds.

Hyara's tears fueled Galmak's rage and frustration. He had to do something. He couldn't let this happen to her. His hand inched closer to the axe he carried at his belt, which no one had bothered to confiscate since they arrived here. He knew it would be a desperate and stupid move to try to attack the eredar, but he was ready to take his chances on any slim hope. He had closed his hand on his axe when Sarzuun suddenly strode forward faster than Galmak could react and dealt the orc a ringing blow to the side of his head, sending him reeling. Hyara screamed, and this time she threw herself at the eredar and managed to land a punch to his stomach. Sarzuun didn't react at all. He stood for a few seconds staring at Galmak as the orc struggled to regain his composure, then casually caught Hyara by the hair as she flew at him again.

"Cage him," the eredar said coldly. Felguards closed in and pulled Galmak to his feet, then dragged him to the iron cage they had set against the right wall of the hall. Hyara struggled futilely in Sarzuun's grasp, then kicked a sharp hoof at his leg. The demon roared at the unexpected pain and threw her hard to the floor. Across the room there was a resounding crash as the felguards slammed the cage door. Hyara looked up from where she landed to see Sarzuun staring at her with rage and lust blazing in his eyes. He knelt down and grabbed her by the hair, forcing her face close to his.

"You care for this animal? And he cares for you?" Sarzuun growled.

"You are the animal," Hyara spat.

The eredar laughed softly. "You'll find out, wench." He pressed his lips hard against Hyara's and forced her down against the cold stone floor. His massive body crushed the breath from her and she struggled beneath him. This only seemed to fuel Sarzuun's lust and he fumbled at her armor, ripping mail and leather alike when he couldn't unfasten it easily. Hyara screamed and thrashed, doing whatever she could to hamper him. Across the room she heard Galmak roaring in rage and a corner of her mind dimly noted that he was cursing like a goblin dockhand. The armor cut and bruised her as the eredar ripped it roughly and she shook with terror. Could this really be happening? How had she come to this... lying naked and terrified before a master of the Legion. Sarzuun forced her legs apart and Hyara wanted to squeeze her eyes shut and fall into sweet, dark oblivion, but darkness wouldn't come. She turned her head, and her eyes met Galmak's across the room. Even through her terror and pain she was surprised to see tears running down his face. A ferocious, tough orc crying for her. Somehow the thought was wonderful and comforting, and Hyara found he'd given her the courage to smile. She stretched out her hand toward Galmak and he reached to her as far as the bars of his cage would allow.

Sarzuun was bigger than Hyara could have imagined, and he wasn't gentle. At first she tried to shrink away from him but before long he had exhausted her and all she could do was lie limply as he used her. At last he could go no longer, and with a roar he spent himself inside her. Hyara delved into her earliest training and cast a weak but soothing heal on herself, her Gift of the Naaru. And now, too late to spare her the memory of what had just happened, she found her mind drifting away into darkness.

* * *

"Oooh, she looks a mess." Laughter.

"I warned him he couldn't use a mortal the way he does us; it'll be his own disappointment if he kills her so quickly. Clean her up, girls, he wants her again soon."

Soft cloths touching her, hands turning her, pain. Hyara groaned and there was more giggling. "Hurts, doesn't it?" someone said.

There was the sound of a whip cracking. "Just finish. She's his toy, not ours, more's the pity."

Hyara's eyes slit open and her fears were confirmed. A small huddle of succubae stood around her, horned heads tossing haughtily as they whispered to each other. Hyara tried to sit up and found that the pain was much less. One of the demonesses stepped forward and cupped Hyara's face in her palm, turning the hunter's head to one side to examine her.

"I am Raizha," the demoness said. She turned Hyara's face back toward her and narrowed her eyes. "I expect you'll rarely see me, but if I instruct you to do something you will obey. Sarzuun is your master, as he is mine. And these others', of course." She gestured impatiently to the other succubae. "Now that you look more to his taste you will live in his own rooms."

Hyara looked down at herself and realized that not only had the succubae healed most of her wounds, they had also put her in a clinging, filmy blue dress. To her embarrassment and disgust, it was translucent and left very little to the imagination.

"Up," Raizha snapped. Hyara glared levelly into the demoness's eyes and got slowly to her hooves. Hyara's terror had lessened somewhat and now she felt anger stirring. Raizha motioned for her to follow and Hyara ventured a look around the large room, despite the curious stares of the many succubae. Here very little of the dull stone was visible. Hangings of all descriptions and colors covered the walls, and thick rugs muffled the sound of hooves. Hyara could see nest-like piles of pillows along the walls with succubae peering hostilely over the tops. Her skin crawled; this was a room full to bursting with demons.

Raizha turned a gold key in the lock of a small door and motioned Hyara through. "The master's chamber," said the demoness. Hyara entered, but turned back to Raizha.

"Where is the orc I was brought here with?" Inwardly the hunter quailed at the answer she might get.

Raizha looked for the barest instant puzzled, but then her beautiful face resumed its cold mask. "I know nothing of any orc," she responded, and with a flip of her dark hair stepped back through the doorway into the harem. She started to close the door but stopped and glanced once more at Hyara. "Your face betrays you. You would do well never to say a word of this orc to Sarzuun. He is a jealous man." With a click of the key in the lock, Hyara was alone.

The hunter turned to take in her new surroundings. The "master's chamber" was in sharp contrast to the room she had just left; here there were no hangings or rugs to relieve the stark, cold stone walls and floor. As with the other rooms she had seen in the fortress there were no windows, but despite that, faint air currents stirred her flimsy dress and sent chilling caresses down her spine. Another huge fireplace occupied the center of one wall, its orange glow casting the only light in the room and reminding Hyara horribly of the throne hall. But the center of the room, and the worst part of it all, was the bed. It was enormous and rose almost to her waist, with tall posts of thick, black wood that gleamed sharply and reflected the firelight. Blankets draped it, pillows had been tossed desultorily across its wide surface. When Hyara walked to the far side, she found a set of small, wooden steps placed against the bed. They were clearly not intended for Sarzuun. _The bed of a Legion demon_, she thought, and felt sick. There was no other furniture in the room. Hyara could sit on the bed or she could sit on the floor.

She stole away to the corner farthest from the door and settled her back against the wall. Shadows danced and she seemed to hear again the mocking laughter of the imp. Was Galmak still in the cage? Had Sarzuun stayed to torment him after he had finished with her? Galmak might be dead even now. The stone floor seemed to have drunk the warmth from her, but Hyara didn't know if she was shaking from the cold or from her sobs. She almost didn't notice when the lock clicked in the door not from the harem, but from the outside. She stifled her sobs as Sarzuun strode into the room. He saw her on the floor immediately and came to stand in front of her.

"Foolish little bitch, you'll make yourself sick." He pulled her to her hooves and took her face in his hands, forcing her to look up at him. He wiped the tears gently from her cheeks, but his fel eyes glowed without a trace of sympathy. Then he stepped back and seemed to caress Hyara head to toe with his eyes. "It looks as though they cleaned you up well," the demon said with a small smile. He pulled her against him and kissed her slowly and deeply, but Hyara pushed at him. She stifled the urge to bite his lip, though; to taste the blood of a demon was to take a terrible risk of corruption, she had been told. As before, her struggles had no effect and he only laughed at her helplessness. She wondered if he could be distracted, or perhaps she could anger him enough that he would kill her outright and release her from this nightmare.

Sarzuun's breath came hot across her face and he bit her ear hard enough that she yelped at the sudden pain. Hyara went limp in his arms. Sarzuun was unprepared for her abrupt shift in posture, and she tumbled to the floor. Quick as a cat, she rolled to the side and kicked with all her strength at the back of his leg, collapsing his knee. The demon fell to the floor, but leapt back up faster than Hyara would have believed his bulk would allow. She had achieved her aim, though; Sarzuun's face was twisted with rage. Hyara stood and faced him as fearlessly as she could. _Oh Light, I'm ready to die. Please let me be ready._

He glared at her, his chest heaving with anger, muscular tail lashing. She returned his baleful gaze.

"You disgust me," she said softly. "What do you do here? You send your slaves out to watch. And for what... to find you a victim, a toy. Is that why the Legion put you here? To fulfill your desire for amusement?"

For a moment Hyara thought she had succeeded. But then Sarzuun spoke. Though his face was angry his voice was calm and cold as steel.

"You are clever, Hyara. For some reason you wish to die, and you would goad me into killing you."

She realized she'd been holding her breath and let it out.

He continued. "In answer to your question... I suspect you already know why I am here, even if you won't allow yourself to think about it. Where did you get that scar, Hyara? It's odd... different from other scars, don't you think?" He ran his fingers lightly down her side and her hands jumped involuntarily to cover it. "So you see... I almost claimed you even before I knew you existed. Perhaps my creatures will have more success with others."

She glared up at him. "That one never will."

He laughed and the anger drained from his face, but now Hyara saw lust rising once more. She felt weariness now along with her despair; how long could she endure this? Struggling against his cycles of brutality and lust, wondering if he would grow tired of her or turn her man'ari… Suddenly there was no defiance left in her and she sunk to the floor, choosing simply to ignore him until he forced himself on her.

But Sarzuun had already devised another way to torture her. "This is new to me, your determined non-compliance with my wishes. Hyara, do you know how long it has been since a woman would not do exactly as I wished? Thousands of years. Whether out of fear or a desire to please me, all the women I choose are pliant." He stepped nearer, pulled her up from the floor, and began caressing her through the thin fabric of her dress. "Your resistance is... exciting. But I think now I would like a taste of you as if you were willing... as if you desired nothing more than to be with me."

Hyara didn't have more than a few seconds to fear what he meant; it was as if a warm, heavy wind had suddenly blown straight into her head and begun wrapping her brain in fog. She shook her head as if to clear it but then found that she couldn't move. She stared up at Sarzuun with panicked eyes, and he smiled almost tenderly. But then slowly the panic drained away and left her with a dullness, as if a wet blanket had been thrown over her mind and was stifling all her higher thought processes. Somewhere in a corner of her head a pathetic, scared little thing was screaming at her, but she couldn't understand why.

Sarzuun kissed her, and it seemed only natural to kiss him back. Her body heated under his caressing hands and she moaned softly. He picked her up and carried her to the bed where he helped her wriggle out of her filmy dress. His runed kilt soon followed it to the floor.

"You're beautiful, Hyara," he whispered, his voice gentle as a dagger point dragged lightly across skin.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her, gasping as his lips found her nipples and his hands stroked her tail. The pathetic creature in her mind was begging tearfully now, but the dull heaviness that wrapped her brain could concentrate only on the pleasure she felt. She heard Sarzuun give a short, mirthless laugh and idly she wondered at it. But the thought was pushed from her mind as she felt a sudden desire, a need, to pleasure him with her mouth. He lay back on the bed and eagerly she darted her tongue out to lick his massive manhood. He growled low in his throat as she took him into her mouth. Hyara was responsive to his direction and soon she had him tearing at the bedcovers, fighting to maintain his composure. Sarzuun gave a great roar, and in one motion he pushed her off him and rolled her onto her back. She screamed as he plunged into her, wrapped in bliss even as she felt the pain of her body stretching to accommodate his thick manhood. He was not much gentler than the first time he had taken her, but Hyara's enslaved mind comprehended only lust as her body finally stiffened, then shuddered in ecstasy. She let out a lingering scream that died into a low moan and mingled with Sarzuun's own howl of pleasure. He kissed her slowly, then rolled off her and gazed into her eyes. Hyara's mind suddenly seemed to wash clean; the hot, oppressive fog slithered out of her head and the anguished creature leapt from its corner to take full control of her mind once more. Her mouth fell open in horror and she stared dumbly at Sarzuun next to her on the bed. He smiled mockingly. Without a word he dressed and walked to the door. He turned back once more to look at her, but only her horns were visible poking from the blanket wrapped around her small form. The iron key turned in the lock and Hyara was alone once more.

Silence fell on the room now. She wished silence would fall in her mind. The anguish and humiliation of knowing what she'd done roiled blackly inside her. One minute she wished herself dead and the next she wanted nothing more dearly than to watch Sarzuun die in exquisite agony. Through her tears Hyara gathered up a few blankets and pillows and dragged them to her chosen corner where she arranged them nest-like. _Just like them_, she thought. _I may as well be one of them. I'm his slave now._

There was the creak of a door from the other side of the room, but this time it was the door to the harem. Hooves clacked across stone and Raizha's voice called her. Hyara burrowed deeper under the blankets.

The demoness snorted delicately. "If one of my girls acted like this, she'd get a fine whipping. But I see now that you are still alive; I will leave you to your misery." With a swish of her wings she turned to leave. "If you care to know, your orc is still alive also."

Hyara's tears came again, but they were tears of relief and longing.

* * *


	6. We Do What We Must

* * *

_I swore to let nothing harm her. I wanted to protect her for the rest of my life if she'd let me. _Galmak's grief and fury chased endlessly around his head. He paced his cage impotently; three steps forward, turn, three steps back. He could see nothing though but the image that wouldn't leave his mind: Hyara there on the floor, her hand outstretched to him, a wavering smile suddenly crossing her face. That smile had broken his heart. She still looked to him for strength, but he had none to give her.

Sarzuun had paid very little heed to the orc. That first day, after Sarzuun had finished with Hyara and she had passed out, the demon had looked over at Galmak where he strained against the bars of his cage. The monster had laughed loud and long. Felguards had carried Hyara away, Sarzuun had left, and Galmak hadn't seen him since. _How long has it even been? _Galmak wondered. Felguards, and once the imp, brought him meager food at erratic intervals. The lack of windows and fresh air played tricks with his time sense. Perhaps two days; surely no more. The horrors he knew Hyara must have faced in that time made his stomach turn over.

Hooves clacked nearer from the dark passage by the fireplace. Galmak gripped the bars and peered out. Not the heavy steps of the giant eredar... A succubus emerged from the doorway and trotted over purposefully. She wrinkled her nose slightly as she came near; Galmak had to admit his cage must smell by now. She studied him silently for a moment and the hunter eyed her warily.

Finally she spoke. "I can't imagine why he decided to keep you."

Galmak remained silent.

She rustled her wings impatiently. "I see you have no idea either. Well. There is a possibility, though, which I'm sure has occurred to you by now unless you really are as stupid as they say orcs are. He may use you as leverage over her."

Galmak stared at her impassively. "I assumed he would, but he doesn't seem to have gotten around to it yet. I haven't seen him in days."

"No. He has been... occupied." She pursed her lips. "I think he will get to you eventually though. If he truly intends to keep you to do his bidding you will have much suffering ahead of you."

"And why exactly are you telling me this?"

She narrowed her eyes, her tail swaying languidly. "My reasons are my own." Her hooves beat once more on the stone, back to the dark doorway.

"Wait!" Galmak called desperately. Could she know? "Please... the draenei, is she alright?"

" 'Alright' is a relative term. She is alive." The succubus vanished into the doorway.

Sorrow mingled with his relief. She was alive... in what condition. His Hyara in the brutal grip of a demon twisted beyond imagination. _Don't break, love. Don't let him break you._

* * *

Days passed slowly. Hyara was alone most of the time in the big bedroom. She spent much of her time pacing restlessly, trying to keep her body occupied in hopes that it might distract her mind. After that first pathetic dress she had been given no other clothes, so she kept wrapped in a blanket to keep away the cold as well as to preserve her last shred of dignity. Sarzuun visited her nearly every day, and on some horrible occasions twice or three times in a day. But he hadn't yet invaded her mind again as he had done that once, and for this she was thankful. He slept in the room most nights, but he seemed not to care that Hyara never shared the bed with him, instead returning persistently to her nest of pillows in the corner after he had finished with her. On some occasions Sarzuun would call for Raizha or one of the other succubae after he had exhausted Hyara, and then the hunter would bury herself under her blankets and try not to hear what was going on so nearby. Raizha brought her most days to the harem where she could bathe, and this brief escape from the horrible bedroom became a weak glint of sunshine in a dark existence. She learned from Raizha that Galmak had been moved from the cage to a cell somewhere in the fortress. The succubus dropped these bits of information sparingly and reluctantly, but drop them she did, and Hyara clung eagerly to any information she could get.

It was mid-afternoon one day when the key clicked in the lock and Raizha came in with a different, watchful air about her. Hyara was surprised to see her; she'd already had her bath that morning.

"Come," Raizha beckoned the draenei back through the harem door. Puzzled, Hyara wrapped her blanket more tightly and followed.

"What is this?" she asked, afraid Sarzuun had devised something new and awful for her.

Raizha led her across the harem to another door. "I am taking you to see your orc," she said in a low voice.

Hyara stopped dead, stunned. "Why... why would you do that? Sarzuun-"

"Sarzuun has nothing to do with it," the demoness snapped. "You want to see him, don't you? It is unhealthy for you to be kept in that room constantly and I think our master may find that in the long scheme it will ill-serve his ends. If we meet him or his imp, I am walking you so you don't grow fat in that room. Those are the only two here who would question my behavior. Keep your blanket over your head."

Hyara gulped and found that she was shaking. To finally see him, to see with her own eyes that he was alive and hopefully unharmed...

Their hooves echoed down the endless stone hallways. Torches flickered at intervals and Hyara caught occasional glimpses of rooms, large and small, furnished and unfurnished, many with demons going about the business of the Legion. She kept her head down and followed Raizha closely, fearing discovery. But as Raizha had said, none of the demons they passed paid any attention beyond deferential respect to the mistress of Sarzuun's harem. Finally they descended into the deepest part of the fortress. The torches here were farther apart, spreading only small pools of orange light and leaving larger patches of blackness between.

"No guards?" Hyara ventured.

Raizha laughed. "What need for guards?"

She had a point.

Hyara shivered; the air was colder and damper here. Her heart cried out that Galmak had to live in this place. They reached the end of a corridor where a single weak sconce flickered beside a heavy wooden door with a high, barred window.

"Raizha?"

Hyara's heart leapt as she heard Galmak's voice, hoarse and wary.

"There's someone here to see you," Raizha responded. She turned a black key in the lock and opened the door to reveal thick iron bars.

Hyara sprang to clutch at the bars. "Galmak," she called softly. There was a scuffling sound from inside the dark cell and suddenly he was there in front of her, blinking in the light from the torch and grabbing at her hands as she held them out. They didn't speak for a moment, only stared. Hyara's face was wet with tears but she made no sound. Then they were pressing against the bars, struggling to hold each other through the cold iron. He kissed her and cupped her cheek in a huge green hand.

"Hyara," he breathed. "Dammit, what can I even say. I would do anything to get you out of here."

She shook her head, unable to speak for a moment. Then, "No. You're the one who doesn't belong here. If it weren't for me... oh, Galmak, I'm so sorry." She choked back a sob. They clung to each other for what seemed an eternity, not speaking, glad only to be together again.

At last Raizha spoke. They jumped; they'd forgotten all about her. "Long enough," she said. "Every minute here is a risk."

Hyara stroked Galmak's face and felt her heart would break, leaving him again. She took her blanket from her shoulders without a thought for her nakedness and stuffed it through the bars.

"Hyara... you're..." He was crying silently now too.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "It's cold down here."

He kissed her again, lingeringly, until Raizha grabbed her arm and pulled her away. The demoness locked the heavy wooden door. At the high window Galmak's hand appeared. Hyara kept her eyes on it all the way down the corridor until they turned out of sight.

Back through the fortress they walked, again meeting no one who paid them much heed. Hyara was naked, but she held her head high. And in her mind something like hope began to take shape.

* * *

That night when Sarzuun had finished with her she rolled to the other side of the bed, covered herself, and fell asleep. The eredar was pleased and smiled to himself. Slowly Hyara allowed herself to become more submissive to him, and then she began to force herself to become more responsive. She loathed this. But the hope that had kindled recognized the necessity, and she saw that her change in behavior was beginning to have an effect on the eredar. At first he had treated her as a toy; he had seemed to make it his goal to humiliate and hurt her as much as possible. Now he responded to her more and more as if she were an addiction. She had gambled that his lengthy removal from other eredar had starved him for company of his own kind and it appeared she'd been right. He was still often brutal and cruel, but once she had gathered the courage to treat him with disdain at certain times she found that it excited him and he came nearer to treating her as an equal. This was exactly what she hoped for.

Raizha did not take her to Galmak again but she continued to bring Hyara news of him. Many times Hyara wanted to ask Raizha to send him some hope, word to be patient just a little longer, but of course she couldn't. Hyara wouldn't trust the demoness that far.

And then one day came unexpected joy. It was early morning, and she was just waking.

_Hyara?_

Sleep fell away in an instant. _Gink! Oh Light, Gink._

A mental sigh and a sense of the cat's easing pain. _You're still alive. I would have known if you weren't, but…_ He had the feel of her sense now, and he understood much of what had happened more quickly and completely than words could have told him. _Oh, Hyara._ The pain crept back.

_Gink, how close are you? You _must _get away before anyone catches you. There's nothing you can do for me._

_This is the closest I've been able to get; there are demons everywhere out here. It's taken us a long time to travel this far into their territory. Palla is with me but she can't come as close. She's more visible._

_Gink, please go. Please, if there were any hope I'd tell you, but the only way out for me is not a way I want you to follow._

_Don't talk like that._

_It's only the truth. There may be hope for Galmak, though. I'm trying. Tell Palla I'm trying to get him out of here._

Unease entered Gink's sense_. I have to go… Goodbye, Hyara. I won't give up on you._

_Goodbye, Gink. I love you._

His presence trailed away, out of reach. She sighed and wiped her eyes. Talking with Gink again had been the one last thing she wanted, perhaps what she had unconsciously been waiting for. She rolled over to examine Sarzuun, still asleep next to her. Maybe the time was right to be more aggressive. Carefully Hyara moved closer. She didn't want to wake him accidentally now. She wanted him to wake to… She moved her hands caressingly down his body and began stroking his manhood lightly. His body responded but still he didn't wake, only stirred a little, and soon he had a full erection. Hyara steeled herself for what she had to do and straddled him. For once she was in control and she eased him inside her and began to rock back and forth slowly. _The pig probably thinks he's dreaming_, she thought disgustedly. But he stirred again and Hyara quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be lost in rapture.

"And what… are you doing?" His voice sounded a little strained.

She moaned convincingly and took a hissing breath through her teeth before replying. "I felt a need for you."

He grunted and made as if to flip her onto her back, but she shoved him back down and continued to rock back and forth slowly.

"Wench…" he started dangerously. He sounded near losing control, and only now did Hyara open her eyes. She gave him a slow, mischievous smile and began to ride him hard. It was all over very soon; he bellowed, dug his nails painfully into her legs, and she felt him spill inside her. Hyara panted and screamed for all she was worth. She collapsed on top of him, then rolled off. He reached a hand over and traced his fingers through the stickiness between her thighs. He chuckled softly, got up, and left the room.

Hyara's triumph was tinged with anguish and disgust.

* * *

It was very late. The fire burned low, embers pulsing red and orange. Hyara was exhausted and sick at heart, for she hadn't heard from Gink for days now and she feared for his safety. But the time was here; she had to do what she'd been preparing for.

Sarzuun was resting languidly on the bed beside her. She draped a leg over his and pressed her womanhood, still sticky, against his body. "Sarzuun," she breathed.

He turned his glowing fel-green eyes on her. Her heart was beating so loudly she was afraid he could hear it.

"I want you… I beg you, please… make me man'ari like you."

A slow, wicked smile spread across his face. "Ahh… you are willing now, Hyara." His laugh echoed around the room.

She smiled. "I am willing… and you know now that I must be willing, don't you?" Surely he would have seen what she eventually understood from the wound she had taken in Felwood. She had fought the corruption, and because of that she would have died if not for the help she'd gotten. Had she been willing or weak, on the other hand… He must understand; everything hinged on her willingness. And he must believe her willing. For a moment she feared that all her efforts spent grooming him for this had been a waste.

But he pulled her to him and kissed her fiercely, biting at her lips. "Then I will make you man'ari. You will be immortal and mine for eternity. Hyara, you will know power and pleasure you never dreamed of as a mistress of the Legion."

She smiled, wrapping her fingers around his manhood and massaging it slowly. "My master… make me one promise in honor of this, as I shed my mortal life and join myself with you and the Legion."

"What, Hyara? I will make it if I can."

"Free the orc, Galmak, who is held in your dungeons. You do not need him anymore. You have me to serve you." She closed her eyes and bit his shoulder softly.

Sarzuun was silent for a moment that seemed to stretch forever. His voice had a hard edge when he finally spoke. "He will go free. And when he is gone from here you will never think of him again."

It took all her self-control for Hyara to keep her voice steady and intimate. "Of course not, my master… there is no room in my thoughts for anyone but you."

* * *

When the felguards came for him, Galmak thought the day of his death had surely arrived. But as they dragged him out of his cell, there was Raizha in the corridor. Why would she be there also?

She didn't leave him wondering. "Your draenei has struck a bargain. You are free to go," she said with a flick of her wings.

"What? How is that possible? What did she do?"

Raizha didn't answer. The felguards prodded him roughly down the corridor and he stumbled after the demoness. "Raizha! Answer me! What did she do?"

"You will not like the answer, so I don't see why I should tell you."

"I want to know!" he snarled.

But she kept her silence as she led them through the maze of the fortress. They entered a vault-like black stone hall with a ceiling lost in shadows. An enormous iron gate loomed ahead. Raizha motioned for the felguards to halt. She faced Galmak.

"Hyara has promised herself to the Legion in exchange for your freedom. The demons in our territory have been instructed to let you pass. You have one day to leave, after which time you will be killed if you remain."

She flicked her hand, two felguards dragged open the iron gate, and Galmak was thrown reeling into the blinding light of the outdoors. He didn't know how long he stood there dumbly, in shock. After a while he looked at his hands, realized they were bleeding, and wondered why. Then he realized he'd been pounding on the gate and yelling Hyara's name until he was hoarse. Not even on that first day of their capture had he known such despair. No one inside heeded his cries. Finally he stumbled away from the fortress down the road that would lead him to Winterspring. Was there any way? Could he find help and come back for her? Each step carried him farther from her but he kept going with the slim hope that somehow he could still save her. He passed by a rocky ravine with a few meager, twisted bushes growing at the bottom and a dark shape suddenly slipped from behind the vegetation. It was Palla. He dropped to the ground and threw his arms around her. He continued on, Palla to one side, Gink to the other. At last the snow of Winterspring glinted around him. He was free, but he wished he were dead.

* * *


	7. Betrayal

A/N: And here's the finale. If you're interested, the series continues with Joined Lives!

--

* * *

Galmak plodded on. He was freezing in only his tattered armor and his stomach reminded him how long it had been since he'd eaten. Palla wanted to hunt for him; he might get a fire started, and then he could warm up and regain some strength. But he drove himself to continue out of desperation even as he knew he would probably find no help in Everlook. _It'll take days to get there at this rate, with no mount._ He growled and staggered forward faster.

A shadow swooped low out of the sinking sun and he whirled and tripped as something thudded into the snow at his feet. A high, cold cackle died away behind a nearby hill, receding fast back the way he'd just traveled. Galmak stooped to pick up an awkwardly shaped bundle. Inside were some warmer clothes, food, and… He pulled it out and squinted at it in puzzlement. It was a robe, scarlet with demonic runes embroidered across it in gold thread. It looked like the sort of thing a warlock would wear. Something fluttered to the ground, and he picked it up. It was a note. He skimmed to the bottom, seeking a signature. _Raizha?_

_If you want to save your draenei, start back to the fortress this instant. Tomorrow at dawn put on the robe. You will be escorted inside. Be surprised at nothing that happens. Follow my cues and Hyara's. When you first see her, call her Ar'aka._

That was all. But it was all Galmak needed. Whatever was going on, it was a chance, Hyara's only chance. He gave a shout and charged southward.

* * *

The night before Hyara's transformative ceremony was to take place, Raizha came to the draenei while Sarzuun slept. Hyara sat on the floor by the fire staring calmly into the flames. She looked up as the harem door opened and Raizha entered with her hoofs swathed in cloth so as to make no sound.

"You think you are going to die tomorrow," the demoness whispered. Hyara's eyes opened wide in fear. Raizha had guessed her secret; she knew Hyara would fight the corruption until death released her. The demoness held up her hand and continued. "You may still die. But there is one last hope, one more thing you may try. Hyara leaned close and in whispers Raizha explained her plan. The draenei looked thoughtful. It was audacious and extremely risky, but it was a chance. She had nothing to lose by trying. Raizha, on the other hand…

"Why do you do this," Hyara whispered, "when you could let me die and risk nothing? All would be back as it was before I ever came here."

Raizha was silent for a moment. The firelight on her face revealed her internal struggle. Finally she said, "Because Sarzuun is a fool. He would better serve the Legion dead."

Hyara sensed this wasn't the full truth of it but she said nothing. From a pouch at her belt Raizha produced a small gold knife and a tiny gemmed goblet. To Hyara's horror the demoness pressed the knife to her palm, opening a gash. She squeezed thick, dark blood into the goblet and held it out to the hunter.

"You must drink," Raizha said. Hyara's stomach twisted in revulsion, but she understood and pressed the goblet to her lips. "Use no magic tonight. Tomorrow you must cast a fel spell. You will have only one chance. I suggest you make it an impressive display." And with that Raizha left as silently as she had come.

Hyara climbed into bed beside the sleeping eredar and tried to let sleep overtake her. _Light, let me be strong tomorrow, whatever comes._

* * *

She stood once more in the throne hall before Sarzuun. Felguards lined the walls; Sarzuun's imp bounced and gibbered to one side of his throne. Beneath Hyara's hooves an intricate demonic rune pulsated with fel-green magic. She wore clothing again for this occasion: thin crimson silk draped her in a translucent dress with a plunging neckline and slits up both sides showing her legs.

Sarzuun smiled and his eyes held a cold, hungry eagerness. "Today you will become man'ari and a great mistress of the Legion. You will serve me as you could not as a mortal."

Hyara gazed back into his eyes and smiled. She felt little fear now at this last stand against him; her body instead seemed charged with an excited nervousness.

Rapid hoofbeats echoed loudly in the corridor. Hyara took a deep breath. The show was about to begin.

Raizha burst into the room and ran to kneel in front of Sarzuun's throne.

"Master," she gasped breathlessly. "I could not be sure until now, but… Master, you have been deceived!" She rose and turned to where the hunter stood calmly, raising an accusing finger to point. "Master, you cannot make her man'ari… the blood of a man'ari already flows in her!"

Sarzuun's face was working through a range of emotions. He stared in disbelief at Raizha. His face seemed to settle on incredulous amusement and he was about to speak when Hyara's voice rang out, calm and cold.

"Well done, bitch. You have seen what your master could not, in his arrogance."

Sarzuun now turned his eyes on Hyara and rose slowly from the throne. His eyes narrowed in rage. "Raizha," he rumbled. "You are badly mistaken. This wench is not man'ari."

_Oh Light, this can't work… how can this possibly work._ But now was no time to waver; she had to keep the momentum of the situation on her side. A cruel smile played on Hyara's lips and she walked slowly to where Sarzuun stood before his throne. Next to him Raizha seemed hypnotized, gaping at Hyara. As the draenei approached, the demoness shrank back as if cowed in the presence of a powerful being. Hyara had to admire the performance. Sarzuun glanced at his succubus and Hyara saw the tiniest doubt begin to manifest itself in him. But she still tread a sword's edge. She came close and pushed him slowly and firmly to sit back in the throne.

"Sarzuun," she purred his name. "You don't believe that a mere mortal could have given you such pleasure as I have? Surely you have heard of eredar who disguise their demonic nature in service to the Legion… who bring themselves low for a time in service to our great master. The Legion has been watching you. My master has been watching you. You must know who my master is, Sarzuun. He is your master too; or had you forgotten?" She ran her fingernails lightly down his cheek. "Months ago you asked my name, you remember?" He swallowed almost imperceptibly. "I am Ar'aka. I am the servant and mistress of Kil'jaeden. Through me his eyes have been on you, and now I have sent my servant to inform him of my… final decision." Sarzuun seemed paralyzed, his face unreadable. Hyara returned to stand again on the fel rune. There was a sound behind her and she turned to see the great wooden doors opening. A felguard flung them wide, and in strode Galmak, rich demonic robes flowing behind him as he walked. There was dark determination in his face and he looked powerful and deadly. Hyara nearly lost her fragile composure at the sight of him, but she recovered as he knelt in front of her.

"Mistress Ar'aka," he said, bowing his head.

Hyara placed a hand lightly on his shoulder, drawing strength from the touch. "Our master has been informed?"

"Yes, Lady," he answered.

Sarzuun roared in rage and leapt to his hooves. Now was the time. Hyara summoned all her magical ability and felt the power of the fel flowing through her, magnified by the rune on which she stood. She extended her arms and a wave of malevolent green light pulsed toward Sarzuun where he stood. Into the spell she channeled all the fury and frustration she'd known for months now. A wild scream ripped from her lips and died as Sarzuun thudded heavily to the floor, writhing. Her chest heaved and the rage faded from her eyes. The eredar struggled weakly to pull himself upright.

"You are an unworthy servant of the Legion," Hyara intoned. "There is one here who is better suited to the task. Raizha." She turned her eyes to the demoness. "My master Kil'jaeden has been better pleased with what he has seen in you. To you I will leave leadership here. And I give you responsibility for the fate of this… creature." She gestured disdainfully toward Sarzuun's struggling form. _May it be a fate worthy of the monster he is._

Raizha came to kneel at Hyara's hooves. "My lady, I will make myself worthy of the position Kil'jaeden has bestowed on me." She rose and gestured to the felguards around the room. They obeyed immediately, rushing forward to drag Sarzuun up from the floor. He roared and flailed weakly. As they dragged him from the room his eyes met Hyara's for an instant and in them she saw a mad fury boiling. She shuddered.

"I must leave at once," she said, and Raizha gave a small smile and nodded.

The demoness gave them provisions and warm clothes for their long walk back to Everlook. Many things had to be left unsaid because of the presence of other demons, but Hyara didn't think it would have mattered even had they been alone; she didn't believe the demoness would ever admit to one of the reasons she'd helped the draenei. Ambition surely played a large part in it. But Hyara had also seen how Raizha had kept a subtle but persistent interest in bringing news of each other between Hyara and Galmak. Perhaps a succubus could never know love for herself, Hyara didn't know; but it was clear that Raizha could at least understand it, and could also understand that her master bore no love for her. Hyara was astonished to find that she felt pity and even respect for a Legion demoness.

As they crossed at last into Winterspring, reunited with Gink and Palla, sobs of relief wracked Hyara's body. Galmak held her silently and let her cry. He felt he would never let her go again; they would stand clinging to each other forever here as the cold swirled around them. They traveled far that day, eager to put as much distance between them and that nightmarish place as possible, but finally they had to concede to exhaustion. Galmak smiled to himself as once again he made a little blanket tent under a tree. How wonderful that night had been. If only…

They curled together inside the tent, wrapped in each other's warmth. He stroked her hair soothingly and she sighed.

"Galmak," she whispered. There were tears in her voice.

"What, love?"

Her heart swelled to hear him call her that, but guilt and sorrow gnawed at her. "No… oh, Galmak… you- you can't want me anymore." She gulped back a sob.

He rose up on an elbow to look at her face and continued stroking her hair. "I don't know what you mean by that."

She closed her eyes. She couldn't meet his gaze, so full of love. "I can't explain. Please don't make me explain. You wouldn't even know me, from the horrible things… the horrible things I had to do." She took a ragged breath and continued. "I won't say he made me do everything. That would be a lie. Some things I chose to do… oh, please believe me that I only did what I did because I saw a chance to get you out of there."

He nestled his face under her chin against the warm pulse in her neck and held her silently for a moment. "I don't know all that you've been through and I think it might drive me mad if I did know." He kissed her neck softly. "I thought I was dead in there… but more importantly, I thought I'd lost you. I didn't see any hope for getting you away and it made me not care one whit what happened to myself. I never, ever want to lose you again. I've come within a hair's breadth twice now. Hyara, I'm only leaving if you chase me off with a cartload of goblin explosives. And even then you can bet I'll come crawling right back. I can't imagine how it makes you feel, what that monster did to you… but as far as I can tell, you only made the right choices in a situation where most wouldn't have seen any choices at all. Please, love. Don't break my heart now. I do want you, and I'll want you forever."

Hyara could barely see through her tears, but she pulled him down and kissed him, tenderly, lingeringly. "I want you, Galmak," she whispered. "Please, oh please, take me."

This time he knew better than to ask her if she was ready, if she truly wanted this. She was ready and she wanted to heal. She wanted to pick up where they'd left off, where circumstances had so horribly intervened. Gently he helped her out of her clothing in the cramped space and stripped off his own. Hyara lay there in the faint moonlight that filtered through the tent's entrance, and at last she saw the bare body of the man she loved. She sighed with pleasure at his smooth muscles rippling beneath his skin, his thick manhood standing erect and ready for her. And finally he could see her beautiful nakedness under the right conditions. The way he looked at her made her feel whole again, as if she were worthy of being loved, despite all she'd been forced to do. Galmak made love to her slowly and gently, slipping inside her with a tenderness and care that took her breath away. She smiled in bliss; he was exactly right for her. There was no pain, only pleasure. He drew himself in and out of her, slowly but deeply, working them both to a panting frenzy until Hyara at last begged him to finish her. Galmak groaned and thrust deeper and faster until she bucked in his arms and gave a little scream. Only then did he succumb to his own urgent need and finally burst inside her, letting out a low, rumbling growl. She moaned and sighed softly, drawing his lips down to hers. He laid down on her, careful not to crush her, with his manhood still inside her and his seed draining slowly from her body. Hyara couldn't get enough of the feel of him. She felt she'd waited forever to taste his love and now at last he was hers. He was like a pure, cleansing light to her mind as well as her body.

Softly, she began to sing in orcish one of his songs from a lifetime ago in Felwood. His voice rumbled deep in his chest as he joined her. Outside, snow danced and whirled as if it took joy in their song.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8 that's really 1

* * *

**A/N: **Ok, so here's the deal. I've gotten enough feedback that I think it'll be a lot more convenient for my old readers wanting notification of updates on this if I just append the rewritten chapters to the end, starting here at chapter 8. Just replacing chapters in the story doesn't generate alerts and I realize it's inconvenient to wade through my profile in search of a notification of an update. So here we go. Chapters 1-7 are going to remain untouched, while chapters 8 through something-or-other (depending) will be revamps of the originals. Onward!

* * *

The forest watched, cold in its indifference, as a slim blue figure pushed frantically through an unyielding wall of brush. Hooves crunched on dead leaves, branches snagged armor and sliced at exposed skin. The girl seemed uncaring of any hindrance, oblivious even to the blood that streamed across her face and clouded her vision with blue, her breath coming ragged now with exhaustion. Close behind, something huge and snarling trailed in her path, its beady eyes fixed intently on the quarry it could smell was tiring. The thing too ignored its own wounds and ignored even the hunter's huge cat that was inflicting so much damage from behind.

Panting, knowing her luck was wearing thin, Hyara spared a wild glance over her shoulder. The beast's roars of rage were getting closer and her cat was tiring. It was time for a last stand. With unsteady hands she whipped an arrow from the quiver at her back, then stopped and turned to raise her bow in a final shot at the thing barreling toward her. Her vision was wavering but her hands and body flowed easily into the rhythm of her training and the arrow flew true to bury itself with a dull _thunk_ in the creature's chest.

_Shit_, she thought as the blackness of unconsciousness finally swallowed her. _Now I've really done it_.

*******

Felwood's night breathed with the furtive rustlings of its creatures. The greenish gloom concealed most of their movements and cast the forest in odd shadows that could fool the eyes and set the senses on edge. Night here was not the time for traveling, yet a lone figure on wolfback wound a cautious way up the road in the semidarkness. Nearby, a smaller grey shape slipped ghostlike through the trees, nose to the ground as she explored.

Galmak's orcish eyes could pick out his wolf's grey form in the trees ahead and to his right, just barely. He shifted in the saddle as his eyes roamed the brush and trees uneasily, his hunter's senses attenuated with the strain of the edgy vigilance he'd been maintaining for many hours. Palla, his wolf companion, had caught some cold scent trail and had been following it for a while now. He envied her occupation, the meager distraction it offered from this unnerving place and its unsavory history. This had once been an uncorrupted forest, like Ashenvale to the south. The echoes of its former beauty still lingered, now twisted into sickly parodies, embittered over long years. Had the animals here, the forest itself, noticed when the taint first came to them, or had it been too gradual, seeping in until there was nothing to be done but stay the course that had been set for them?

With a low growl the orc shook himself back to alertness. He would leave this cursed place all the more quickly if he didn't run into trouble, and that would only happen if he kept his thoughts on the road with his body…

But something had changed in Palla's sense, further off the road amongst the trees now, and he strained his eyes to see her through the gloom. He could no longer make out her shape, but her feel through their bond told him that she was moving cautiously now, skirting something in the underbrush. Galmak sent an impatient question to her.

_Someone here_, came her explanation a moment later.

He shifted uneasily on his riding wolf and tugged the animal gently to a halt before responding. _Well, come back then. If it's an enemy, we want none of it; if it's a friend, we don't have time for socializing_.

She gave the mental equivalent of a disdainful sniff at his lack of curiosity, but he knew she understood his desire to pass through Felwood as quickly as possible. He was therefore surprised and annoyed when she didn't immediately reemerge from the forest to resume their journey.

_Now what?_ he asked impatiently.

_I think you should come here_.

Galmak gave a grunt of displeasure as he nudged his wolf to the side of the road, dismounted, and gave it a soft command to stay. Palla wouldn't have called him over if she hadn't deemed it important and he had to admit she had aroused his curiosity, but nevertheless he wanted to make this quick and be back on their way. Quietly he pushed into the deeper shadows of the undergrowth, but he hadn't gone five yards when he began to notice signs of some sort of fairly recent carnage. He raised his eyebrows and would have let out a low whistle if he hadn't been trying to move silently – this must have been a pretty monstrous battle. All around him was broken brush; he spotted clumps of fur in several places and dark smears on branches and on the ground that must have been blood. Underfoot the sickly, tainted grass had been trampled. He followed his sense of Palla and crept up next to her where she was crouched beneath a bush. She turned her wide, glinting eyes to him, then back to where Galmak could see not much more than what looked like a dark bundle crumpled on the ground in a small area clear of brush. As he watched, something suddenly moved in an area that he could have sworn had held nothing but empty air a moment before, and the thing he saw resolved itself into the head of a cat. As his eyes made sense of this, he was able to pick out the rest of the cat's body, insubstantial as shadows. He could clearly see the brush behind the cat through the cat's body.

_A ghostsaber_, Palla's thought came to him, and he nodded. He'd seen them a few times before but they were rare, and even rarer as companions of Horde hunters.

_His name is Gink_, his wolf continued, and he turned to look at her with raised eyebrows.

_Where's the thing that killed his hunter?_ Galmak asked, his eyes scanning the undergrowth uneasily, searching for the trail the monster might have made as it crashed away after visiting death upon the crumpled body in the clearing. Was the thing still nearby? Perhaps the cat had managed to chase it off once the thing had exacted its revenge on the hunter.

_The thing is dead, several yards north in the bushes. Gink's hunter isn't dead_.

_Dying then, from the look of it. How long ago did this happen?_

_Several hours_, Palla answered.

Galmak sighed and gave his wolf another look. She had called him over here because they shared the same weakness: the inability to simply ignore the suffering of other hunters or their companions. She knew once he'd come over here and seen the dying body on the ground he would be unable to do anything but help, if he could. In this situation, however, he wished he could just leave well enough alone. This hunter was surely beyond help if he had been lying here for hours, suffering from serious wounds. Galmak could see the glint of dark blood pooled near the head and side; he was no healer and knew he could do little if the damage proved to be severe. But still, he couldn't just walk away without even satisfying himself that there was nothing to be done.

_All right, I'll take a look_, he conceded. _Will the cat let me approach?_

_I think I've been able to reassure him you're here to help_.

The orc's lips twisted in a wry half-smile, knowing just how much pain he was in for if the cat decided he didn't trust the "help" after all. Nevertheless, he approached cautiously, making soothing sounds and all the while watching the glinting eyes for signs of alarm. The cat growled very softly in the back of his throat but remained quiescent at his hunter's side. He would accept a temporary truce, then, out of desperation and necessity.

Reaching the body, Galmak placed his hands gently on either side of the head to turn it for a look at the wound, but his hands met two somethings, smooth and hard and curved, that sent a jolt of surprise through his stomach. He was touching horns. This hunter was a draenei; what's more, it was a female draenei.

Galmak inwardly cursed his bad luck.

*******

Time flowed oddly in Hyara's mind, with her consciousness weaving drunkenly upward toward partial awareness once in a while. In the blackness she felt a sharp edge of fear that lingered; for what reason, she couldn't recall. She hurt, and her mind stubbornly refused to deal with it. Better to remain oblivious for a little longer, no matter that she could dimly feel Gink's pleading to return, to show him some sign she _could_ return. _Later_. She pushed at him weakly and dropped back into darkness.

But hours later, with the suddenness of a swimmer surfacing, her eyes registered a red glow and her skin felt the heat of flame emanating from somewhere close at her side. Her back felt not the press of hard ground, but the thin cushion of a bedroll. She struggled to move but her head felt heavy and her eyelids seemed glued shut.

Gink was there immediately, feeling her return to consciousness. _Hyara, don't move. You're hurt badly and you're not out of danger. Stay still._

She was confused. Should she pretend to be dead? Whose fireside was she lying at?

But her cat hastened to reassure her, although she could clearly sense he was uneasy himself. _He knows you're not dead. I mean you're not ready to try sitting up yet. Keep still._

_Who knows I'm not dead?_

_An orc hunter found us after we killed the beast. He's saved your life by helping with what he can, but I still don't trust him or his motivations. You understand?_

She did understand; the memory of what had happened was reemerging and clarifying. Gingerly she turned her head away from the flickering campfire and opened her eyes slowly, fearing what she would see.

But instead of an entire band of Horde surrounding her, waiting for her first sign of life, her eyes took in only one lone orc sitting on the ground several paces away. His eyes weren't glowing red and he didn't look murderous in the least, munching absently on a heel of bread as he gazed into the black trees beyond the firelight. His wolf companion lay near his feet, grey head resting on her paws, one eye open. Despite the domesticity of the scene, Hyara wasn't fooled for a moment that he didn't know the instant she awoke. He would be ready to spring up at any second and put an arrow through her, and she had no illusions she could stop him in her current condition.

He blinked, then his head swung around and he caught her studying him. His eyes locked with hers but she didn't flinch away, deciding instead to off-balance him, give him some slight reason not to kill her. Not that he'd had no chance when she'd been out cold for hours, she reminded herself wryly, yet still…

"Thank you for saving me," she said in accented but perfectly understandable Orcish.

She got her desired reaction. His eyes widened in consternation and he stuttered a little as he asked, "How do you know Orcish?"

She smiled slightly, finding his mild confusion unaccountably charming. "It's not terribly uncommon for draenei to know Orcish. We lived alongside your people for many years."

The orc grunted and turned his eyes away from her toward the fire, his unguarded moment of surprise passed. The wolf raised her head and stared at her master, then laid her muzzle on his foot.

Hyara let her head roll back to the side and she closed her eyes to combat a momentary wave of dizziness. What she hadn't told this orc was that it was actually fairly uncommon for someone her age to know Orcish; she was young for a draenei and had lived most of her life on Azeroth, with only vague childhood memories of Draenor. Most of those memories involved her parents being afraid for reasons she had only come to understand much later. Azeroth had been her home for at least two decades now, since the Exodar had crashed, and it was on this world she had grown up, honing her skills as a hunter until she was ready to venture alone into dangerous places such as Felwood. Or so she had thought. With a wrench she thought once more of the monstrous creature that Gink said they had killed only an instant before it would have killed her.

With the deep, calming breath she took came a lance of pain and she cried out. She craned her neck, trying to look down at her right side without moving, but all she could see was the tattered remnants of her leather tunic covering a bandage stained dark in the firelight. The orc sprang to her side and with a surprisingly gentle hand he pressed her back to the ground. His eyes roved downward to the wound and he gingerly lifted a strip of leather away from the stained bandage. Hyara thought he looked a little helpless, as if he were exasperated with the situation and wished he could trade places with someone a thousand miles away. She could hardly blame him.

"You've got a bad gash down your side," he explained in a voice deep but soft. His long, dark hair fell forward, gleaming in the firelight, and he pushed it back impatiently. "It's deep, and bleeding badly. I put some ointment on it… usually works wonders… but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. I'd guess the wound's fel-poisoned somehow, which isn't surprising from the looks of the thing you tangled with." Despite her private terror at her narrow escape, Hyara was pleased to hear a touch of awe creep into the orc's voice as he continued gruffly, "I have no idea how you managed to survive that at all. That was the biggest, nastiest, most ferocious furbolg I've ever seen. How in the name of all the elements did you have the bad luck to attract his ire?"

Her smugness at his admiration, already weak, died on the instant and her glowing eyes slid away from his deep brown ones. She bit her lip and answered in a small voice, "I bit off a little more than I could chew." And it had nearly cost her life, and Gink's.

Galmak gaped for a few seconds at the admission of such dire, almost fatal, overconfidence before he managed to school his expression to blankness. She certainly didn't need him to tell her she'd made a bad decision. She had undoubtedly learned her lesson and was extremely lucky to still be around to apply it to future situations.

"I'm Galmak, by the way," he said quietly and extended his hand. She smiled again slightly and took it. It was huge, swallowing hers, and very, very green. She stared for a moment, realizing with an odd sense of curiosity that this was the first time she'd touched an orc. She released his hand abruptly, embarrassed.

"I'm Hyara."

She pronounced the "H" breathily, and Galmak couldn't do it when he tried. "Ha-yara," he said, sure he'd done it right, but his ears told him otherwise and he was miffed with himself. Here she knew his whole language and he couldn't even get one name right in hers.

Once again she found him unaccountably charming, disproportionately consternated as he was that he couldn't pronounce her name correctly. She tried to chuckle, but her side split open in pain again and she groaned. Gink's body tensed in sympathy and his tail lashed.

_If a fel poison's gotten into you, we need to get you somewhere it can be cured. You're only going to get worse if we don't_, her cat told her bluntly.

_I know. _ A hint of desperation entered her sense at her next thought and her eyes flicked toward Galmak, peering again with a frown at the bandage on her side. _But I'm completely dependent on him for help. Look at me – I can't go anywhere on my own like this. If he decides he's done enough and goes off and leaves... _

But the orc spoke then, cutting into their mental conversation. "I think your head should do all right with a little time to heal; that wound doesn't look fel-tainted. A branch or something must have cut you there. But as for this other wound… I need to get you somewhere this poison can be cured." He paused and looked at her thoughtfully, a little dubiously. "Do you think you can sleep tonight, try to gather your strength, and be ready for some traveling by morning?"

Hyara nodded slowly so as not to set her head swimming. She reached out a hand to stop him as he turned away. Why had he helped her? He had, without a doubt, saved her life by finding her tucked away off the road in that maze of undergrowth. He, Horde and an orc, had gone out of his way for her, and all without a healer's creed binding him. Perhaps it should have made her suspicious; she knew most of her people would distrust this orc on sight. Yet somehow something in him communicated sincerity.

He glanced down at her hand on his arm and in embarrassment she blinked the questions out of her gaze and pulled her hand away. "Really. Thank you. I would have died. I owe you a tremendous debt, and I won't forget it, Galmak."

To protest that she owed him nothing, that there was no debt and never could be in his mind except a debt he felt he owed but could never repay, not as long as his race had memory of its past... it would insult her, might even anger her, so Galmak merely nodded and turned away back to the other side of the fire. The feel of the feather-light touch of her hand on his arm faded but he found himself thinking of it as he laid down on his spare bedroll.

With sleep far from his mind, he frowned upward into the darkness at the twisted, blackened trees tainted by a force they hadn't recognized when it came to them and couldn't have run from even if they had. He heard Palla slink off into the undergrowth to prowl a stealthy, watchful circle around the camp, but there would be two on watch that night. Galmak knew he wouldn't be able to close his eyes for a moment.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9 that's really 2

**A/N: **Hey there, people. Yes, I know: holy shitballs. I liiiiivvvveeee. Are any of my good ol' readers still around? I hope so, 'cause y'all are awesome and a big reason I finally worked up the momentum to pick up where I'd left off with this and other stuff. I hope maybe there are some awesome new readers out there too. And if anyone has read my profile, you'll know I am working on soooommmething totally neeeewww! Wooooohhh! Ok now, interwebz, please don't eat my divider line here. Commence chapter 2 redux.

* * *

Dawn broke and lifted one dusty layer of gloom from the forest. Galmak grunted softly and stirred as his hunter's instincts sensed the beginning of the day. He'd managed to sleep a little, but not before he'd spent the bulk of the night worrying about the plan he'd formulated. It was a simple plan; too simple for his liking, with only one possible option: he would have to take the draenei southward, backtracking to the Emerald Sanctuary where the druids could cleanse the fel poison from her body. He would lose all the progress he'd made toward getting out of this cursed woods and the rapid pace he'd set over the past few days would be for naught.

But of course there had, after all, been a purpose to his rush north through Felwood. Sitting up, he turned his eyes away from their scan of the surrounding forest toward the sleeping body huddled nearby on the ground, a tip of a blue tail just visible protruding from beneath the blanket. The draenei – Hyara, he corrected himself, and his pronunciation sounded far better in his head – would have been dead had he come along a day or two later.

Her cat lay pressed against her uninjured side, green eyes following the orc as he stepped over to lay a light hand on her shoulder.

"Hyara." His voice came out gruffer than intended. She opened one eye, sleep shaken off instantly.

"You barely slept," she said.

Galmak raised an eyebrow. "That's true. I take it you did likewise."

"No." She shook her head, shifting her body to sit and wincing with the movement. "I slept. Gink told me you looked as though you were mentally pacing most of the night."

Galmak's mouth quirked in spite of himself and he reached for the bandage on her head to cover the half smile. What he saw beneath it surprised him – not only was the gash healing rapidly, but daylight revealed that the underside of the bandage and the side of Hyara's head were caked with a dried blue substance.

"It's blue," he commented, and immediately felt foolish. Of course her blood was blue; he'd heard as much before, but had always assumed the sin'dorei who called draenei 'blue bloods' were speaking figuratively.

"Oh no, not at all," Hyara remarked to that, a touch bitterly. "They're experts on the color of draenei blood."

_As are my people. I ought to have known_. Galmak stood abruptly and turned away to finish packing up the camp. No time for any more ridiculous reflection; he'd done plenty of that last night and it had cost him his sleep.

Hyara paused for a moment, gathering her strength to stand, and watched the orc as he worked. He was odd; not at all what she would have expected, had she given any thought to what a face-to-face meeting with one of his kind would be like. She'd expected ferocity, barbarism, even murderousness; at best, very bad manners. Galmak showed none of these things. Instead, he'd shown her only compassion and kindness that surpassed many Alliance she'd encountered. And on top of that…

_Oh Light help me, he's rather attractive, in a different sort of way_. It was an absurd thought for she, a draenei, who had barely strayed within ten paces of an orc before last night. Hyara felt her cheeks grow warm, but Galmak was paying her no heed as he packed up his things and she continued studying him. His hair was a deep midnight blue, worn long and pulled back into a ponytail. He had the characteristic tusks protruding from his lower jaw, and his skin was a shade of green that reminded her of leaves in summer. Broad shoulders and the slouched posture typical of orc males gave him a massive look, but as far as height went Hyara guessed him to be only about as tall as herself. Enormous fingers with black nails moved deftly over his riding wolf's harness, tightening here, adjusting there, with a precision and gentleness she wouldn't have believed possible from such hands. An engineer's precision; the thought popped suddenly into her head and she wondered if she were correct. There was a grace of movement about him, surprising with his massive, muscular build, and a sensitivity to his deep brown eyes that spoke of a quick wit behind his rugged features.

Hyara dropped her eyes just as he glanced her way, and she felt her cheeks flare again. The wound was obviously scrambling her brain; fel poison did stranger things even than she had been led to believe. She whistled for Gink to cover her embarrassment and the big cat came bounding back out of the trees from his brief morning hunt.

_C'mon, old boy, I need your steady shoulder or I might not get to my hooves_.

The feel of Gink's mind told her he knew what had been running through her head a moment ago, but he said nothing and braced himself against her leg as she struggled upright. Pain throbbed in her side and she felt the skin pull and tear where dried blood had clung to her leather tunic. She thought she succeeded in suppressing a low moan.

Galmak had avoided watching her struggle; she could ask if she wanted his help, but otherwise he'd leave her the independence most hunters valued so highly. Now that she was standing, however, he studied her furtively as he rolled up her bedding and loaded it onto his riding wolf. She was tall, of course, as all draenei were, but he guessed she must only be of average height by her people's standards. He thought a little smugly that he might even outmatch her if he straightened to his full height. Her skin was a pale blue, her hair an odd ash blonde that seemed to shift colors as the gloomy daylight caught it at different angles. She wore her long hair loose, unusual for a hunter, but had it pulled away from her face in a wide band at her forehead, revealing the delicate tendrils typical of draenei females. Small horns curved out and downward from her head, and Galmak found himself remembering how smooth they had felt when he'd touched them the night before. The very slight sway of her tail, along with the mischievous look of her full-lipped mouth, made him want to stare a little more than he should. The orc turned his back hastily, but not quite before the soft blue-white glow of her eyes had met his.

An awkward pause ensued, each realizing they'd both been up to the same thing. The orc broke the brief silence.

"Your pack." He gestured toward a sorry looking little bundle on the ground nearby, dirty and bloodstained.

"But no elekk," Hyara sighed and crinkled her nose. Of course the poor beast had bolted off long ago, hopefully to safety.

"No, didn't find that. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed." Galmak snorted a laugh, then was immediately sorry; he would have been heartbroken if it had been his riding wolf that had run off in terror to be lost among the dangers of Felwood. "I'm sure your elekk will turn up safe somewhere," he said awkwardly. _Damn it, man, are you trying to make it worse?_

Bracing herself against her cat's back, the draenei limped over to what remained of her pack and prodded it with a hoof. It was a mess, but at least it was still here. The buckles were still woven with the pair of reeds she had picked in Ashenvale, as well, which meant the orc hadn't rifled through her belongings. _Why would I think he would do that?_ she asked herself angrily. These bad, ingrained patterns of thought would have to stop, at least while she traveled with Galmak…

"Shit…!" she hissed through clenched teeth and thumped heavily to the ground. She couldn't even lift the small pack; her side had exploded in pain and she felt a fresh trickle of warm blood on her abdomen.

Galmak didn't understand the Draenei word but he could easily grasp its meaning anyway. He leaped over with a growl and pulled back the tattered leather covering the wound.

"Foolish woman… you've broken it open worse than before. Look at that…" Gingerly, he tugged at a strip of Hyara's leather tunic. The thick hide pulled away in chunks like dry bread. Where it dropped to the fel-tainted ground, little curls of smoke rose. The blood on the leather was not a cobalt blue, but a faintly luminous green.

"Not good," Hyara gasped through gritted teeth.

"No. Not good at all." _What in hell's name could do something like that to a wound?_ "We need to get you on my wolf right away; we have a long way to go to the Emerald Sanctuary and it looks like every second is going to count."

Something stirred in Hyara's memory and she shook her head weakly, closing her eyes. "Not the Emerald Circle… too far. I think there's a druid at Talonbranch Glade."

This was surprising, and excellent, news.

"You think. How sure are you?" Talonbranch Glade, the Alliance outpost in northern Felwood, was a mere three or four hours' journey from here, Galmak estimated, although it would probably be four at the pace they would have to take with Hyara in this condition. The Emerald Circle encampment would take at least a day to reach.

Opening her eyes only a slit, Hyara looked to her cat. _Gink, am I right? Is there a druid at the Glade?_

Gink tore his green eyes away from the malignant, almost sentient-seeming wound in his mistress's side and hesitated a few seconds before answering. They had been at Talonbranch Glade for less than a day, pausing there only briefly at the top of their arc through Felwood. He had seen no druid.

But Hyara might be remembering something from a conversation with one of the residents; she might be remembering something she had seen that suggested a druid in residence. She wasn't certain, and Gink didn't know for himself, but he also wasn't certain she would live to reach the Emerald Circle druids. Her life hung in the balance and he trusted her instincts.

_Yes_, he said firmly. _There's a druid at the Glade_.

Hyara nodded. If Gink was sure, it had to be so. "I'm sure," she told Galmak.

The orc allowed himself a sigh of relief and pushed back the despair he'd felt creeping in. The riding wolf was packed and ready; he tossed Hyara's bloodstained pack hastily atop a saddlebag and then helped her, gently as he could, to her hooves. As she scrabbled her way clumsily into the wolf's saddle the wound tore a little further and sent fresh drops of green-tinged blood scattering to the ground. Her breathing quickened from the pain but she held in the scream that tried to force its way between her lips.

Once seated behind her in the saddle, Galmak urged his wolf to a slow lope, Palla and Gink pacing them easily to either side. It was the smoothest gait the animal could manage, and certainly a compromise with speed. He reassessed his estimate; four hours might be optimistic.

But a white lie was in order, he thought. "Just over three hours," he said bracingly. "You'll make it just fine."

She nodded weakly and her hair brushed his face. He was surprised to notice that she sat a little lower than him; most of her height must be in her legs.

_Not far_, Gink echoed the orc in Hyara's head. She found she couldn't respond; her mind felt hazy and wouldn't seem to concentrate on anything but the throbbing drumbeat of pain and the warm trickle oozing down her side. She finally could support herself no longer and slumped back against Galmak's chest.

The orc fumbled in a bag behind him and pressed a fresh bandage into her hand, then guided the cloth awkwardly to her side.

"Keep that on the wound if you can. You're losing too much blood." She was not only losing it, she was leaving behind a trail of it on the road. Would she have any left after three more hours of this?

Hyara opened her eyes to see trees sprouting sideways, the road flashing by topsy turvy. She had slipped in the saddle and Galmak's firm grip was all that kept her on the wolf. Gods, how much time had passed? The sun didn't look as if it had moved. No, she couldn't see the sun through the trees. And it wasn't the sun anyway, it was green. A green glow, pulsing just at the edge of her vision, eluding all but the corner of her eye…

She whimpered weakly, terror catching hold for the first time, and the animal in her gut clawed in panic to get out. She was losing control; or rather, it felt as if something were wrenching it from her. Something wanted in. Her own consciousness wanted out if it meant evading this thing.

_Where's the harm in that? Give up, let go. This will end and you'll be free of the terror. The pain will be gone._

_I can't… No, you can't… Please, what is this…_

She couldn't form a coherent thought. Was she talking to herself now?

"Hyara!"

Her name jerked her back to sanity, her eyes popped open and the murky forest filled her vision again. Galmak was gripping her arms tightly and he gave her another shake. "You were muttering something. Stay alert. Tell me about yourself, tell me about your family… you have family?"

But it was a brief reprieve; her head was spinning again, her eyelids sinking shut, and the whisper was rising once more in her muddled head. "Galmak… please help me," she managed in a whisper. She felt a hand close around her own and the warmth and solidity of it steadied her a bit. Someone _was_ here and it wasn't this thing in her head. That wasn't real… not yet. The man behind her, holding her on the wolf, was real.

Galmak's voice rose slightly, rhythmically, and she realized he was singing. It was all she could do at this moment to make any sense of the Orcish words. She found herself struggling with them and translating them for herself into Draenei, odd though many of the meanings sounded in her native language. And because of this, the whispers in her head were still for the time. Hyara took a deep breath and forced herself to sing along, quakily and tunelessly, but with her sanity still intact for now.

It was clear to Galmak that Hyara was dying, would likely be dead in a matter of hours at most. Every moment left more blood on the trail behind them and every jarring step sent her body and spirit slumping lower. _The druid won't be able to help her_.

_Maybe not_, Palla responded from further up the trail, honestly but gently.

_Not even a chance to know her_. He found suddenly that he wanted to, very much. And her family, if she had any? They might never learn what had happened to her, a lone draenei hunter known to him only as Hyara, dead among strangers in a gods-forsaken demonic forest. The Alliance at Talonbranch Glade would record that she had been there and died there, but unless someone sought the information and knew where to look…

_What can I do, Palla? At least I won't be the cause of her death_.

_You weren't the cause of any of those deaths_, his wolf responded with a fiercely affectionate nudge to his mind. _Stop carrying the guilt of events before your birth_. Her mental tone softened and he felt her presence grow fainter after his eyes lost sight of her up the gloomy road. _You have done everything you possibly could. The Glade is close now. Gink and I are running ahead to alert them_.

Galmak pushed the riding wolf to a full-on run and after a few minutes his straining eyes and senses picked out two kal'dorei sentinels sprinting westward along the path toward him. He pulled up to a cautious walk and held his hands in the air away from the bow and quiver at his back.

He barely knew twenty words in Common and none in Darnassian, but fortunately one Common word he did know was "injured," and he shouted it once the elves were within earshot.

Not that it wasn't obvious. As they drew near enough to see Hyara clearly, one of the sentinels gasped and made a motion with her hands that Galmak had no trouble interpreting as some kind of plea to Elune. It was also mercifully obvious that Galmak himself could have had nothing to do with the injury, and so the elves wasted no time trying to get her away from him; instead, one of them darted quick as a hummingbird back down the path to the Glade and the other motioned Galmak to follow her. To his surprise, she kept up easily with the running wolf. They rounded a stand of huge, twisted trees, and at last the warm glow of the village's lights leaped up through the gloom. Among the small crowd gathered to see the disturbance was a kal'dorei man dressed in the robes of a druid healer. _Thank the ancestors_…

Hyara was singing softly as they pulled her gently off the wolf and lowered her to a blanket on the ground. She didn't stop even as they cut away her tunic and the healer gingerly probed the wound, sending fresh agony spiking through her. They also couldn't get her to let go of the orc's hand; she clung to it as if it were her last and only grip on the world.


End file.
